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2025 County Report

Fires in Covington County, MS

In 2025, fire departments serving Covington County responded to 325 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $15K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

4,025 residents FIPS 28031 15 cities · 0 fire depts
Total incidents
325
1,422 across 5 years
Building fires
50
200 wildland
Property loss
$141K
$120K structure · $22K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Forest, woods or wildland fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.

325
Total Incidents
Forest, woods or wildland fire 93 28.6%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 57 17.5%
Building fires 50 15.4%
Grass fire 50 15.4%
Passenger vehicle fire 19 5.8%
All other categories 56 17.2%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Covington County?

Mar peaks. Jun dips.

Jan 36
Feb 47
Mar 68
Apr 26
May 16
Jun 3
Jul 12
Aug 23
Sep 25
Oct 53
Nov 11
Dec 5
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Covington County

1,422 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 158
2022 105
2023 421
2024 413
2025 325
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 50 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
31%
17
Cause undetermined
62%
34
Intentional / arson
2%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
4%
2
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
1%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $89K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Covington County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 74% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $15,000 Mount Olive Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
2 $15,000 Mount Olive Building fires Significant
3 $10,000 Mount Olive Building fires Significant
4 $10,000 Seminary Building fires Significant
5 $10,000 Collins Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
6 $8,000 Collins Building fires Significant
7 $6,000 Seminary Passenger vehicle fire Significant
8 $5,000 Mount Olive Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $5,000 Collins Grass fire Significant
10 $4,500 Mount Olive Building fires Significant
06 How Covington County compares

Covington County vs MS vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

80.75
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Covington County
80.75
MS avg
16.75
US avg
7.15
12.42
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Covington County
12.42
MS avg
2.71
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Covington County
0
MS avg
22.2
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Covington County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 28031.

09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in MS

Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Toms Camp 2023 USFS 5,301
2 Grand Bature Fire 2016 PRI 4,247
3 Range 40 2022 USFS 3,836
4 Range 12 2022 USFS 2,753
5 Baldy North 2023 USFS 2,093
6 Range 45 Northeast 2023 USFS 1,823
7 Indian Creek 2023 USFS 1,771
8 County Line 2023 USFS 1,554
9 Carson Six 2024 USFS 1,346
10 Parces Rd 2024 USFS 1,158

About this data

County-level NFIRS aggregates for 2025, plus 5-year totals across 2021–2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Wildfire risk score (0–100) and Expected Annual Loss come from FEMA's National Risk Index. Drought class is the most recent USDM classification (D0 = abnormally dry through D4 = exceptional drought). Historical fire perimeters are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.