In 2025, fire departments across Georgia responded to 15,886 fire and hazmat incidents — including the West Mims wildfire that burned 152,528 acres in 2017.
Georgia ranks #18 in cumulative acres burned in the NIFC perimeter atlas. Hover any state to compare; click to drill in.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Top five categories cover roughly 48% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. (Latest year: 2025.)
5-year cumulative seasonality smooths out single-year noise. Mar peaks across the window; Sep dips.
300,782 incidents from 2021 through 2025 across all reporting departments.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 60,300 | |
| 2022 | 81,402 | |
| 2023 | 79,388 | |
| 2024 | 63,806 | |
| 2025 | 15,886 |
For the 1,422 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 | Debris & open burning | 100,916 | 100,916 / 0 | 475,258 | |
| 2 | Arson / incendiarism | 39,163 | 31,975 / 7,188 | 264,765 | |
| 3 | Undetermined / missing | 32,605 | 9,633 / 22,972 | 239,374 | |
| 4 | Equipment & vehicle use | 21,684 | 13,583 / 8,101 | 34,737 | |
| 5 | Natural (lightning) | 11,270 | 9,609 / 1,661 | 687,317 | |
| 6 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 6,561 | 6,561 / 0 | 12,856 | |
| 7 | Smoking | 5,134 | 5,134 / 0 | 14,287 | |
| 8 | Recreation & ceremony | 4,326 | 4,326 / 0 | 20,014 | |
| 9 | Railroad operations | 3,225 | 3,225 / 0 | 14,597 | |
| 10 | Other causes | 1,907 | 16 / 1,891 | 75 | |
| 11 | Power generation / utility | 52 | 52 / 0 | 907 | |
| 12 | Fireworks | 10 | 10 / 0 | 62 |
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 | 85,469 | $8.4M | 3 | |
| 2 | Electrical / wiring | 53,334 | $2.9M | 0 | |
| 3 | Building fires | 50,489 | $884.7M | 242 | |
| 4 | Wildland fires | 48,382 | $7.1M | 3 | |
| 5 | Gas leaks | 45,819 | $166K | 0 | |
| 6 | Vehicle fires | 27,272 | $1.3B | 56 | |
| 7 | Rubbish / refuse | 20,142 | $3.6M | 0 | |
| 8 | Cooking-related | 9,982 | $2.4M | 0 | |
| 9 | Arson | 676 | $1.6M | 0 |
Largest single-incident property losses statewide in 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 22% of Georgia's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,000,000 | St Simons | Building fires | Major |
| 2 | $2,000,000 | St Simons | Building fires | Major |
| 3 | $1,500,000 | Jesup | Building fires | Major |
| 4 | $1,474,500 | St Simons | Building fires | Major |
| 5 | $1,005,300 | St Simons | Building fires | Major |
| 6 | $1,005,300 | St Simons | Building fires | Major |
| 7 | $1,005,300 | St Simons | Building fires | Major |
| 8 | $1,000,000 | ADAIRSVILLE | Building fires | Major |
| 9 | $1,000,000 | Canon | Building fires | Major |
| 10 | $1,000,000 | Union City | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major |
Per-capita rates let us compare Georgia 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 | Carroll County | 1,536 | 61,853 |
| 2 | Floyd County | 1,164 | 46,571 |
| 3 | Forsyth County | 946 | 7,371 |
| 4 | Bartow County | 874 | 35,814 |
| 5 | Fulton County | 769 | 1,101,890 |
| 6 | Glynn County | 762 | 51,362 |
| 7 | Barrow County | 490 | 31,333 |
| 8 | Clayton County | 478 | 76,710 |
| 9 | Pierce County | 449 | 5,320 |
| 10 | Camden County | 437 | 40,821 |
Top 10 counties by NFIRS incidents per 1,000 residents (population ≥ 50,000). Surfaces signal beyond the mega-counties.
| # | County | Inc / 1k | Incidents | Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carroll County | 24.83 | 1,536 | 61,853 | |
| 2 | Glynn County | 14.84 | 762 | 51,362 | |
| 3 | Clayton County | 6.23 | 478 | 76,710 | |
| 4 | Hall County | 5.95 | 368 | 61,870 | |
| 5 | Lowndes County | 5.39 | 394 | 73,149 | |
| 6 | Liberty County | 3.49 | 187 | 53,560 | |
| 7 | Cherokee County | 2.09 | 187 | 89,582 | |
| 8 | Houston County | 1.74 | 194 | 111,189 | |
| 9 | Gwinnett County | 1.68 | 416 | 248,306 | |
| 10 | Coweta County | 1.27 | 68 | 53,498 |
By incident count in 2025.
By acres burned. Sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.
| # | Name | Year | Agency | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Mims | 2017 | FWS | 152,527 |
| 2 | GAOKR-FY19-RX-Blackjack Island | 2019 | FWS | 3,367 |
| 3 | South Cut | 2008 | NPS | 2,581 |
| 4 | St. Catherines Island | 2022 | USFS | 2,213 |
| 5 | GAOKR-FY19-RX-Strange Island | 2019 | FWS | 1,999 |
| 6 | GAPDR-FY19-RX-6C/7S/8A/8B | 2019 | FWS | 1,172 |
| 7 | Barrow's Fire | 2016 | PRI | 1,034 |
| 8 | GAOKR-FY19-RX-Mitchell Island | 2019 | FWS | 1,027 |
| 9 | The Nicki Fire | 2014 | FWS | 1,022 |
| 10 | GAPDR-FY19-RX-27A/Stephens | 2019 | FWS | 972 |
213 perimeters and 187,568 acres recorded since 1900.
| Decade | Fires | Acres | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 1 | 331 | |
| 1980s | 4 | 11 | |
| 1990s | 7 | 262 | |
| 2000s | 7 | 2,761 | |
| 2010s | 107 | 176,044 | |
| 2020s | 87 | 8,159 |
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 | 65,664 | |
| 2000s | 74,282 | |
| 2010s | 43,400 | |
| 2020s | 1,694 |
FPA-FOD ignitions by month, all years on record. Distinct from NFIRS — captures unreported wildlands across rural and remote terrain. 185,040 ignitions total.
1,489 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 | 61 | |
| 10-19 | 63 | |
| 20-29 | 245 | |
| 30-39 | 267 | |
| 40-49 | 228 | |
| 50-59 | 171 | |
| 60-69 | 171 | |
| 70-79 | 118 | |
| 80+ | 64 |
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.