In 2025, fire departments serving Bartlett responded to 216 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $438K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 45% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,135 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $8.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 186 | — | |
| 2022 | 243 | +30.6% | |
| 2023 | 290 | +19.3% | |
| 2024 | 200 | -31.0% | |
| 2025 | 216 | +8.0% |
For the 25 building fires Bartlett departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 504 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 103 | 20.4% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 92 | 18.3% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 70 | 13.9% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 48 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Other | 31 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 30 | 6.0% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 12 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 10 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 8 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 7 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 93 | 18.5% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Bartlett mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 246 | 48.8% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 41 | 8.1% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 40 | 7.9% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 33 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 21 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 20 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 15 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Match | 15 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 9 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 8 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 56 | 11.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bartlett departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 77% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $437,600 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $205,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $102,960 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $78,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $48,120 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $29,750 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bartlett sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
38 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 6 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,234 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 45.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,130 | 43.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,007 | 35.4 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 891 | 49.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 870 | 42.0 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 770 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 636 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 529 | 40.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 43.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 475 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 43.6 mi |
Top 5 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Tennessee cities with population within ±25% of Bartlett. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bartlett.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 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. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.