In 2025, fire departments serving Waynesville responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1 building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 93% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
71 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 13 | — | |
| 2022 | 25 | +92.3% | |
| 2023* | 4 | — | |
| 2024 | 14 | — | |
| 2025 | 15 | +7.1% |
* Well below Waynesville'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 4 building fires Waynesville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 12 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 | Undetermined | 6 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 8.3% |
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 Waynesville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Lightning | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 8.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Waynesville departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1 | Trash or rubbish fire, contained | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Waynesville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 810,076 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 309,200 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 191,474 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 124,110 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 68,361 | 39.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 22,246 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 19,198 | 43.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 14,128 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 7,800 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 6,960 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 5,816 | 47.0 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 4,867 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 4,035 | 34.9 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31566 | 71 |
Six Georgia cities with population within ±25% of Waynesville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Waynesville.
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.