In 2025, fire departments serving Wilson responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $60K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
51 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $401K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022* | 1 | — | |
| 2023 | 14 | — | |
| 2024 | 19 | +35.7% | |
| 2025 | 12 | -36.8% |
* Well below Wilson'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 1 building fires Wilson departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 41 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 | 25 | 61.0% | |
| 2 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 12.2% | |
| 3 | Other | 4 | 9.8% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 6 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 2.4% |
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 Wilson mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 36 | 87.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 5 | Other static discharge | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 2.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wilson departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $60,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wilson sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,537 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 316 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 203 | 37.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 185 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 175 | 50.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 44.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 148 | 20.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 139 | 27.1 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 135 | 32.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 125 | 50.0 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 | 72395 | 51 |
Six Arkansas cities with population within ±25% of Wilson. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.