In 2025, fire departments serving Lexington responded to 164 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $148K 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 80% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,033 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $2.9M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 144 | — | |
| 2022 | 210 | +45.8% | |
| 2023 | 275 | +31.0% | |
| 2024 | 240 | -12.7% | |
| 2025 | 164 | -31.7% |
For the 10 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 351 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 | 77 | 21.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 57 | 16.2% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 30 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 27 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 16 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 15 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 11 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 10 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 9 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 8 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 91 | 25.9% |
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 | Arcing | 73 | 20.8% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 68 | 19.4% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 42 | 12.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 36 | 10.3% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 17 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Molten, hot material | 16 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 13 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 13 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 12 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 10 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 51 | 14.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lexington departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $148,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $65,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $35,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $21,700 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $8,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $7,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lexington sits above 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 7,018 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 900 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 585 | 36.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 516 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 390 | 36.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 331 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 330 | 29.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 264 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 240 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 240 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Recreation and ceremony | 240 | 26.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 235 | 37.9 mi |
Top 3 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 Lexington. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Lexington.
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.