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2025 County Report

Fires in Lafayette County, MS

In 2025, fire departments serving Lafayette County responded to 384 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $750K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

31,313 residents FIPS 28071 21 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
384
1,742 across 5 years
Building fires
36
108 wildland
Property loss
$3.7M
$2.7M structure · $1.0M contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories make up about 60% of all calls.

384
Total Incidents
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 79 20.6%
Grass fire 54 14.1%
Building fires 36 9.4%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 32 8.3%
Passenger vehicle fire 28 7.3%
All other categories 155 40.4%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Lafayette County?

Mar peaks. Nov dips.

Jan 40
Feb 36
Mar 84
Apr 40
May 21
Jun 31
Jul 9
Aug 38
Sep 49
Oct 36
Nov 0
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Lafayette County

1,742 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 320
2022 95
2023 464
2024 479
2025 384
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 36 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
69%
61
Cause undetermined
11%
10
Intentional / arson
2%
2
Equipment / heat source failure
10%
9
Under investigation
3%
3
Act of nature (lightning)
5%
3
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $2.1M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Lafayette County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 77% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $750,000 Oxford Building fires Major
2 $500,000 Oxford Building fires Major
3 $300,000 Oxford Building fires Major
4 $150,000 Harmontown Building fires Significant
5 $100,000 City of Oxford Building fires Significant
6 $60,000 Village of Taylor Building fires Significant
7 $55,000 Oxford Building fires Significant
8 $50,000 Oxford Building fires Significant
9 $50,000 Oxford Grass fire Significant
10 $50,000 Village of Taylor Building fires Significant
06 How Lafayette County compares

Lafayette County vs MS vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

12.26
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Lafayette County
12.26
MS avg
16.75
US avg
7.15
1.15
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Lafayette County
1.15
MS avg
2.71
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Lafayette County
0
MS avg
22.2
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Lafayette County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 28071.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Lafayette County

1 departments report from this county.

Oxford FD
Oxford
FDID 36003 181 incidents 53 paid 16 vol
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.