In 2025, fire departments serving Carlisle responded to 23 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5 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 78% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
58 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $5 cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 3 | — | |
| 2023 | 10 | — | |
| 2024 | 20 | +100.0% | |
| 2025 | 23 | +15.0% |
* Well below Carlisle's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 9 building fires Carlisle departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6 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 | 3 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 16.7% |
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 Carlisle mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 16.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Carlisle departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Carlisle sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,386 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 716 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 418 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 365 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 80 | 39.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 75 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 60 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 43 | 47.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 39.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 | 41.1 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 47838 | 58 |
Six Indiana cities with population within ±25% of Carlisle. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Carlisle.
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.