In 2025, fire departments serving Crossville responded to 481 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 43% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,367 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $12.3M cumulative property loss. 6 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 400 | — | |
| 2022 | 448 | +12.0% | |
| 2023 | 586 | +30.8% | |
| 2024 | 452 | -22.9% | |
| 2025 | 481 | +6.4% |
For the 44 building fires Crossville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,327 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 | 363 | 27.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 246 | 18.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 119 | 9.0% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 80 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 75 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 74 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 36 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 35 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Other | 19 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Function area, other | 19 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 261 | 19.7% |
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 Crossville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 794 | 59.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 57 | 4.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 56 | 4.2% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 56 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 52 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 42 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 41 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 40 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 26 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 22 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 141 | 10.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Crossville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 89% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $110,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $60,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Crossville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
25 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 | 3 | |
| 10-19 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 6 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 8 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 56,569 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 8,134 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,646 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,450 | 18.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,398 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,944 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,925 | 25.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,784 | 30.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,480 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,214 | 24.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,080 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,050 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,018 | 26.6 mi |
Top 10 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 Crossville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Crossville.
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.