In 2025, fire departments serving Lexington responded to 2,126 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2.5M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 39% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
13,240 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $54.0M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,691 | — | |
| 2022 | 2,960 | +10.0% | |
| 2023 | 2,789 | -5.8% | |
| 2024 | 2,674 | -4.1% | |
| 2025 | 2,126 | -20.5% |
For the 101 building fires Lexington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3,189 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 | 532 | 16.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 429 | 13.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 398 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 396 | 12.4% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 314 | 9.8% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 189 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 111 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 65 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 60 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 53 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 642 | 20.1% |
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 Lexington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,767 | 55.4% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 282 | 8.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 197 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 141 | 4.4% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 136 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 108 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 96 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 87 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 47 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 45 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 283 | 8.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lexington departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 57% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $400,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $300,000 | Building or structure weakened or collapsed | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $295,700 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lexington sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
45 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 | 6 | |
| 30-39 | 9 | |
| 40-49 | 12 | |
| 50-59 | 7 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 4 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 16,023 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,100 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,640 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,000 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 855 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 800 | 48.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 715 | 43.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 715 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 715 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 650 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | 567 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 551 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 549 | 45.9 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.
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.