In 2025, fire departments serving Wilmington responded to 3,046 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 72% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
14,296 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $3.2M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,547 | — | |
| 2022 | 2,492 | -2.2% | |
| 2023 | 3,047 | +22.3% | |
| 2024 | 3,164 | +3.8% | |
| 2025 | 3,046 | -3.7% |
For the 621 building fires Wilmington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,938 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 | 296 | 15.3% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 282 | 14.6% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 252 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 142 | 7.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 93 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Other | 90 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 81 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 75 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 63 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 60 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 504 | 26.0% |
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 Wilmington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,198 | 61.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 133 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 89 | 4.6% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 87 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 64 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 59 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 50 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 44 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 42 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 33 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 139 | 7.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wilmington departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 88% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wilmington sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
27 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 5 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 27,772 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 35.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,950 | 41.3 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,900 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,600 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,535 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 1,518 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,000 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 910 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 765 | 36.7 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wilmington.
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.