In 2025, fire departments serving West Point responded to 38 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K building blaze. 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 60% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
282 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $1.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 95 | — | |
| 2022 | 89 | -6.3% | |
| 2023* | 31 | — | |
| 2024* | 29 | — | |
| 2025 | 38 | — |
* Well below West Point'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 3 building fires West Point departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 92 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 | 27 | 29.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 19 | 20.7% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 5 | 5.4% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 20 | 21.7% |
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 West Point mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 56 | 60.9% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 7.6% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Lightning | 5 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 4 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Match | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 3.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by West Point departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Dumpster or other outside trash receptacle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $600 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1 | Trash or rubbish fire, contained | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. West Point sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,541 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 522 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 504 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 481 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 480 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 42.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 50.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 42.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 375 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 356 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 352 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 348 | 40.7 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 Georgia cities with population within ±25% of West Point. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in West Point.
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.