In 2025, fire departments serving Brentwood responded to 256 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $600K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 51% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,314 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $11.7M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 253 | — | |
| 2022 | 311 | +22.9% | |
| 2023 | 263 | -15.4% | |
| 2024 | 231 | -12.2% | |
| 2025 | 256 | +10.8% |
For the 21 building fires Brentwood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 377 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 57 | 15.1% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 53 | 14.1% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 41 | 10.9% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 29 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 22 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 19 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 17 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 12 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 10 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 10 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 107 | 28.4% |
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 Brentwood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 137 | 36.3% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 34 | 9.0% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 25 | 6.6% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 24 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 20 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 18 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Lightning | 17 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 15 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Chemical reaction | 13 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 12 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 62 | 16.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Brentwood departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 92% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $600,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $450,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $420,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Brentwood sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
14 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,253 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 328 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 312 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 235 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 225 | 25.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 170 | 20.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 157 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 118 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 118 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 116 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 108 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 108 | 50.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 104 | 36.3 mi |
Top 4 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 Brentwood. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Brentwood.
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.