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2025 County Report

Fires in Yazoo County, MS

In 2025, fire departments serving Yazoo County responded to 273 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $500K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

11,482 residents FIPS 28163 42 cities · 3 fire depts
Total incidents
273
1,367 across 5 years
Building fires
54
33 wildland
Property loss
$2.9M
$2.0M structure · $951K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Aircraft standby lead by count. Top five categories make up about 70% of all calls.

273
Total Incidents
Aircraft standby 63 23.1%
Building fires 54 19.8%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 33 12.1%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 24 8.8%
Arcing, shorted electrical equipment 17 6.2%
All other categories 82 30.0%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Yazoo County?

Apr peaks. Nov dips.

Jan 37
Feb 20
Mar 39
Apr 47
May 17
Jun 17
Jul 11
Aug 41
Sep 19
Oct 14
Nov 3
Dec 8
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Yazoo County

1,367 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 306
2022 142
2023 328
2024 318
2025 273
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 54 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
40%
23
Cause undetermined
16%
9
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
12%
7
Under investigation
33%
19
Act of nature (lightning)
-1%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.8M in losses

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

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $500,000 Bentonia Building fires Major
2 $310,000 Yazoo City Building fires Major
3 $310,000 Yazoo City Building fires Major
4 $300,000 Benton Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Major
5 $200,000 Benton Building fires Significant
6 $50,000 Yazoo City Building fires Significant
7 $50,000 Yazoo City Building fires Significant
8 $45,000 Bentonia Building fires Significant
9 $40,000 Yazoo City Building fires Significant
10 $40,000 Yazoo City Building fires Significant
06 How Yazoo County compares

Yazoo County vs MS vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

23.78
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Yazoo County
23.78
MS avg
16.75
US avg
7.15
4.7
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Yazoo County
4.7
MS avg
2.71
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Yazoo County
0
MS avg
22.2
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Yazoo County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 28163.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Yazoo County

3 departments report from this county.

Benton VFD
Benton
FDID 82001 21 incidents 8 vol
Dover VFD
Yazoo
FDID 82010 2 incidents
Holly Bluff VFD
Holly Bluff
FDID 82004 0 incidents 17 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.