In 2025, fire departments across Arkansas responded to 25,177 fire and hazmat incidents — including the No Mans Land wildfire that burned 8,403 acres in 2006.
Arkansas ranks #25 in cumulative acres burned in the NIFC perimeter atlas. Hover any state to compare; click to drill in.
Building fires lead by count. Top five categories cover roughly 47% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. (Latest year: 2025.)
5-year cumulative seasonality smooths out single-year noise. Mar peaks across the window; May dips.
144,698 incidents from 2021 through 2025 across all reporting departments.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 28,424 | |
| 2022 | 32,590 | |
| 2023 | 27,402 | |
| 2024 | 31,105 | |
| 2025 | 25,177 |
For the 3,420 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Combined NFIRS + FPA-FOD totals across the available reporting window. Click a cause to see how it plays out nationwide.
| # | Cause | Incidents | FOD vs NFIRS | Acres | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined / missing | 28,587 | 9,760 / 18,827 | 153,208 | |
| 2 | Arson / incendiarism | 18,397 | 10,767 / 7,630 | 229,510 | |
| 3 | Debris & open burning | 10,832 | 10,832 / 0 | 132,522 | |
| 4 | Equipment & vehicle use | 6,451 | 2,391 / 4,060 | 25,092 | |
| 5 | Natural (lightning) | 3,488 | 2,166 / 1,322 | 66,725 | |
| 6 | Other causes | 836 | 11 / 825 | 51 | |
| 7 | Smoking | 599 | 599 / 0 | 5,532 | |
| 8 | Recreation & ceremony | 494 | 494 / 0 | 6,172 | |
| 9 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 399 | 399 / 0 | 2,864 | |
| 10 | Railroad operations | 373 | 373 / 0 | 2,575 | |
| 11 | Power generation / utility | 112 | 112 / 0 | 438 | |
| 12 | Fireworks | 41 | 41 / 0 | 900 |
Topical groupings of NFIRS incident types — building, cooking, electrical, vehicle, and more. Each links to its national rollup.
| # | Topic | Incidents | Loss | Deaths | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Outdoor fires | 51,782 | $10.8M | 5 | |
| 2 | Building fires | 34,610 | $581.2M | 228 | |
| 3 | Wildland fires | 32,969 | $9.7M | 4 | |
| 4 | Gas leaks | 14,346 | $305K | 0 | |
| 5 | Vehicle fires | 12,742 | $197.6M | 53 | |
| 6 | Electrical / wiring | 12,503 | $19.8M | 0 | |
| 7 | Rubbish / refuse | 10,089 | $2.6M | 1 | |
| 8 | Cooking-related | 3,814 | $719K | 0 | |
| 9 | Arson | 3,572 | $23.0M | 9 |
Largest single-incident property losses statewide in 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 27% of Arkansas's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $25,000,050 | JACKSONVILLE | Building fires | Catastrophic |
| 2 | $4,000,000 | MURFREESBORO | Building fires | Major |
| 3 | $2,000,000 | Plumerville | Fires in structures other than in a building | Major |
| 4 | $2,000,000 | Menifee | Building fires | Major |
| 5 | $2,000,000 | North Little Rock | Building fires | Major |
| 6 | $2,000,000 | Alexander | Building fires | Major |
| 7 | $2,000,000 | Bald Knob | Building fires | Major |
| 8 | $1,500,000 | HOT SPRINGS | Building fires | Major |
| 9 | $1,000,000 | JONESBORO | Building fires | Major |
| 10 | $1,000,000 | JONESBORO | Building fires | Major |
Per-capita rates let us compare Arkansas apples-to-apples to the national average.
12 largest reporting cities by population.
Top 10 counties by reported NFIRS incidents in 2025.
| # | County | Incidents | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pulaski County | 5,459 | 362,421 |
| 2 | Benton County | 1,861 | 231,574 |
| 3 | Washington County | 1,843 | 223,585 |
| 4 | Craighead County | 1,095 | 92,876 |
| 5 | Garland County | 958 | 67,913 |
| 6 | Jefferson County | 925 | 50,537 |
| 7 | White County | 825 | 44,432 |
| 8 | Lonoke County | 662 | 46,088 |
| 9 | Saline County | 657 | 79,942 |
| 10 | Faulkner County | 619 | 81,097 |
Top 9 counties by NFIRS incidents per 1,000 residents (population ≥ 50,000). Surfaces signal beyond the mega-counties.
| # | County | Inc / 1k | Incidents | Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jefferson County | 18.30 | 925 | 50,537 | |
| 2 | Pulaski County | 15.06 | 5,459 | 362,421 | |
| 3 | Garland County | 14.11 | 958 | 67,913 | |
| 4 | Craighead County | 11.79 | 1,095 | 92,876 | |
| 5 | Washington County | 8.24 | 1,843 | 223,585 | |
| 6 | Saline County | 8.22 | 657 | 79,942 | |
| 7 | Benton County | 8.04 | 1,861 | 231,574 | |
| 8 | Faulkner County | 7.63 | 619 | 81,097 | |
| 9 | Sebastian County | 4.61 | 505 | 109,550 |
By incident count in 2025.
By acres burned. Sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.
| # | Name | Year | Agency | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No Mans Land | 2006 | USFS | 8,403 |
| 2 | Sulphur Mountain | 2006 | USFS | 4,475 |
| 3 | Big Point | 2016 | USFS | 3,993 |
| 4 | Pipeline | 2016 | USFS | 3,286 |
| 5 | 21 Lick Creek | 2021 | NPS | 3,250 |
| 6 | 20 Cave Creek | 2020 | NPS | 2,939 |
| 7 | Walker | 2024 | USFS | 1,844 |
| 8 | Flat Rock | 2001 | NPS | 1,484 |
| 9 | Slick Rock Hollow | 2013 | NPS | 1,211 |
| 10 | ABOUT TIME | 1996 | NPS | 1,073 |
1377 perimeters and 95,058 acres recorded since 1900.
| Decade | Fires | Acres | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 408 | 3,911 | |
| 1980s | 192 | 4,297 | |
| 1990s | 95 | 5,399 | |
| 2000s | 151 | 20,864 | |
| 2010s | 352 | 27,992 | |
| 2020s | 179 | 32,595 |
FPA-FOD ignitions by decade, broken down by cause category. Each row sums to the decade's total; the bars show the share each cause contributed.
| Decade | Total fires | Share by cause |
|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 5,330 | |
| 2000s | 16,699 | |
| 2010s | 15,272 | |
| 2020s | 646 |
FPA-FOD ignitions by month, all years on record. Distinct from NFIRS — captures unreported wildlands across rural and remote terrain. 37,947 ignitions total.
972 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 5-year window. Age and gender are coarse-binned for privacy.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 45 | |
| 10-19 | 65 | |
| 20-29 | 121 | |
| 30-39 | 164 | |
| 40-49 | 149 | |
| 50-59 | 124 | |
| 60-69 | 127 | |
| 70-79 | 91 | |
| 80+ | 33 |
State totals reflect incidents reported by fire departments to NFIRS for 2025. The 5-year totals span 2021 through 2025. Wildfire perimeters and decade-by-decade counts are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History service. NFIRS reporting is voluntary, so totals are a strong indicator rather than a complete census.