In 2025, fire departments serving Welsh responded to 13 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $40K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Passenger vehicle fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 85% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
39 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $70K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022 | 5 | — | |
| 2023 | 11 | +120.0% | |
| 2024 | 9 | -18.2% | |
| 2025 | 13 | +44.4% |
* Well below Welsh'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 2 building fires Welsh departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 11 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 | 5 | 45.5% | |
| 2 | Other | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 4 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 1 | 9.1% |
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 Welsh mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 45.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 27.3% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Lightning | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 9.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Welsh departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Welsh sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 137,308 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,877 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 12,154 | 42.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 11,210 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 8,874 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 7,433 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 7,000 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 6,385 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 6,384 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 6,365 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 6,259 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 6,174 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 6,018 | 43.2 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Louisiana cities with population within ±25% of Welsh. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Welsh.
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.