In 2025, fire departments serving Wilmington responded to 1,560 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
8,323 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $29.6M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,240 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,371 | +10.6% | |
| 2023 | 2,102 | +53.3% | |
| 2024 | 2,050 | -2.5% | |
| 2025 | 1,560 | -23.9% |
For the 99 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 1,809 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 416 | 23.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 360 | 19.9% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 169 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 123 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 73 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 71 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Other | 62 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 52 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 39 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 33 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 411 | 22.7% |
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 Wilmington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 677 | 37.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 282 | 15.6% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 204 | 11.3% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 126 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 108 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 66 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 62 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 41 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 36 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 35 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 172 | 9.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wilmington departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 83% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000,000 | Building fires | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,008,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $715,900 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $340,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $326,600 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $300,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $266,329 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $173,200 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wilmington sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
44 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 7 | |
| 30-39 | 15 | |
| 40-49 | 6 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 55,480 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 31,140 | 26.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 2,727 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,084 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 1,577 | 22.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,533 | 29.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Natural | 1,300 | 35.8 mi | |
| 1993 | Natural | 1,216 | 24.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,154 | 9.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1,126 | 24.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,100 | 10.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 970 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 944 | 33.7 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.
Six North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Wilmington. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.