In 2025, fire departments serving Gates responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 100% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
80 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $408K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 11 | — | |
| 2023 | 22 | +100.0% | |
| 2024 | 27 | +22.7% | |
| 2025 | 15 | -44.4% |
* Well below Gates'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 0 building fires Gates departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 14 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 | Vehicle area, other | 6 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Other | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 7.1% |
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 Gates mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 12 | 85.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 3 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 1 | 7.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Gates sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,399 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 13.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 316 | 6.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 182 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 175 | 18.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 168 | 15.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 148 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 143 | 48.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 139 | 17.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 135 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 131 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 123 | 39.9 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 122 | 11.3 mi |
Top 2 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 Gates. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Gates.
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.