In 2025, fire departments serving Clarksville responded to 1,396 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.5M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 45% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
6,822 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $44.3M cumulative property loss. 9 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,243 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,443 | +16.1% | |
| 2023 | 1,415 | -1.9% | |
| 2024 | 1,325 | -6.4% | |
| 2025 | 1,396 | +5.4% |
For the 158 building fires Clarksville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3,140 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 | Outside area, other | 542 | 17.3% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 414 | 13.2% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 381 | 12.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 320 | 10.2% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 299 | 9.5% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 137 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 94 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 85 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Construction/renovation area | 69 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 55 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 744 | 23.7% |
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 Clarksville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,551 | 49.4% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 236 | 7.5% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 166 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 165 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 127 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 115 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 98 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 90 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 80 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 79 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 433 | 13.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Clarksville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 46% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $992,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $527,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $500,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $414,800 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $291,400 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $285,200 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Clarksville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
74 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 | 5 | |
| 10-19 | 7 | |
| 20-29 | 13 | |
| 30-39 | 19 | |
| 40-49 | 8 | |
| 50-59 | 12 | |
| 60-69 | 5 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 7,510 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,300 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 1,024 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 517 | 40.6 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 331 | 42.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 48.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 275 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 271 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 230 | 24.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 225 | 26.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 225 | 41.9 mi |
Top 8 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 Clarksville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Clarksville.
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.