In 2025, fire departments serving Wiggins responded to 132 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $215K 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. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
615 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $4.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 98 | — | |
| 2022* | 59 | — | |
| 2023 | 190 | — | |
| 2024 | 136 | -28.4% | |
| 2025 | 132 | -2.9% |
* Well below Wiggins'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 18 building fires Wiggins departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 175 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 | 73 | 41.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 35 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 11 | 6.3% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 11 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 6 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 7 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 27 | 15.4% |
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 Wiggins mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 110 | 62.9% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 23 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 8 | 4.6% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 4.0% | |
| 5 | Heat, spark from friction | 5 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 8 | Fireworks | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 9 | Chemical reaction | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 2 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 10 | 5.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wiggins departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $215,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $30,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wiggins sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 64,088 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,717 | 18.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,300 | 19.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,964 | 17.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,708 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Firearms and explosives use | 3,684 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,180 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,000 | 24.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,857 | 18.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,640 | 16.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,500 | 26.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,442 | 18.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,354 | 18.6 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 | 39577 | 615 |
Six Mississippi cities with population within ±25% of Wiggins. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wiggins.
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.