In 2025, fire departments serving Vidalia responded to 44 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 93% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
267 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $61K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 29 | — | |
| 2022 | 33 | — | |
| 2023 | 47 | +42.4% | |
| 2024 | 114 | +142.6% | |
| 2025 | 44 | -61.4% |
* Well below Vidalia's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 1 building fires Vidalia departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 77 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Outside area, other | 18 | 23.4% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 15 | 19.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 14 | 18.2% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 3 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Other | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Storage area, other | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 13 | 16.9% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Vidalia mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 43 | 55.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 10.4% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 5 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 3 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Match | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 1 | 1.3% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.3% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 6 | 7.8% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Vidalia sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,433 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 1,742 | 38.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,022 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 996 | 36.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 827 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 760 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 713 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 663 | 48.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 526 | 43.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 480 | 44.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 468 | 38.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 455 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 440 | 48.1 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Georgia cities with population within ±25% of Vidalia. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.