In 2025, fire departments serving West Point responded to 100 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K 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 58% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
430 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $411K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 88 | — | |
| 2022* | 25 | — | |
| 2023 | 75 | — | |
| 2024 | 142 | +89.3% | |
| 2025 | 100 | -29.6% |
* 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 20 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 142 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 | 68 | 47.9% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 20 | 14.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 11 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 5 | 3.5% | |
| 5 | Other | 4 | 2.8% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 4 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 4 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 2 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 17 | 12.0% |
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 | 99 | 69.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 12 | 8.5% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 8 | 5.6% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 6 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 2 | 1.4% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 1.4% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 1.4% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 2 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 4 | 2.8% |
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 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $2,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | 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. 9,619 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Smoking | 1,620 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 892 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 475 | 49.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 470 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 20.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 420 | 29.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 49.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 390 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 374 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 366 | 32.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 355 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 325 | 39.3 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 | 39773 | 430 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of West Point. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 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.