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2025 County Report

Fires in Marshall County, AL

In 2025, fire departments serving Marshall County responded to 484 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $324K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

52,620 residents FIPS 01095 51 cities · 2 fire depts
Total incidents
484
2,857 across 5 years
Building fires
105
150 wildland
Property loss
$2.6M
$1.7M structure · $939K contents
Casualties
1 / 2
1 civ deaths · 1 civ inj · 1 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.

484
Total Incidents
Building fires 105 21.7%
Grass fire 69 14.3%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 63 13.0%
Fire, other 26 5.4%
Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other 22 4.5%
All other categories 199 41.1%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Marshall County?

Mar peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 70
Feb 73
Mar 122
Apr 53
May 36
Jun 26
Jul 20
Aug 17
Sep 16
Oct 22
Nov 18
Dec 11
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Marshall County

2,857 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 336
2022 640
2023 667
2024 730
2025 484
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 105 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
53%
170
Cause undetermined
22%
70
Intentional / arson
12%
40
Equipment / heat source failure
3%
10
Under investigation
8%
25
Act of nature (lightning)
2%
6
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.6M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Marshall County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 93% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $324,000 Guntersville Building fires Major
2 $250,000 Guntersville Building fires Major
3 $230,000 GRANT Building fires Significant
4 $215,000 Arab Building fires Significant
5 $183,000 Arab Building fires Significant
6 $120,000 GRANT Building fires Significant
7 $100,000 Guntersville Building fires Significant
8 $50,000 Horton Building fires Significant
9 $50,000 Boaz Building fires Significant
10 $50,000 BOAZ Building fires Significant
06 How Marshall County compares

Marshall County vs AL vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

9.2
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Marshall County
9.2
AL avg
9.37
US avg
7.15
2
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Marshall County
2
AL avg
1.28
US avg
0.82
19
Civilian fire deaths per million
Marshall County
19
AL avg
11.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Marshall County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 01095.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Marshall County

2 departments report from this county.

ARAB FIRE RESCUE
ARAB
FDID 05003 60 incidents 19 paid
Swearengin VFD
Scottsboro
FDID 05015 0 incidents 32 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in AL

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 426 B 2019 USFS 2,671
2 Lake Chinnabee 2016 USFS 2,228
3 742 2019 USFS 1,787
4 Rd07-09 2006 NPS 1,467
5 Big Candle 2019 USFS 1,272
6 Half Way 2016 USFS 1,066
7 LRP NORTHEAST SOUTH RX 2023 NPS 1,026
8 Welcome Home 1 2016 USFS 1,008
9 Road 09-08 WF 2006 NPS 978
10 Caney Head 2016 USFS 932

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.