In 2025, fire departments serving Germantown responded to 167 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $336K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Arcing, shorted electrical equipment lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
913 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $4.8M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 207 | — | |
| 2022 | 181 | -12.6% | |
| 2023 | 188 | +3.9% | |
| 2024 | 170 | -9.6% | |
| 2025 | 167 | -1.8% |
For the 18 building fires Germantown departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 278 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 43 | 15.5% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 34 | 12.2% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 34 | 12.2% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 29 | 10.4% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 16 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 13 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 11 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 10 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 8 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 7 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 73 | 26.3% |
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 Germantown mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 89 | 32.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 35 | 12.6% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 23 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 18 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 15 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Chemical reaction | 15 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 14 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 12 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 12 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 10 | 3.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 35 | 12.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Germantown departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 90% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $336,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $52,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Germantown sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
12 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 18,202 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,826 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 34.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,130 | 34.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,092 | 40.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,007 | 27.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,005 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1,000 | 48.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 891 | 39.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 870 | 31.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 770 | 29.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 750 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 637 | 42.8 mi |
Top 5 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 Germantown. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Germantown.
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.