In 2025, fire departments serving Louisville responded to 6,806 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.8M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 51% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
31,906 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $108.2M cumulative property loss. 29 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 6,050 | — | |
| 2022 | 6,424 | +6.2% | |
| 2023 | 6,401 | -0.4% | |
| 2024 | 6,225 | -2.7% | |
| 2025 | 6,806 | +9.3% |
For the 612 building fires Louisville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 5,190 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 | Undetermined | 1,234 | 23.8% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 816 | 15.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 379 | 7.3% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 268 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 261 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 192 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 161 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 128 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 112 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 104 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,535 | 29.6% |
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 Louisville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2,938 | 56.6% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 367 | 7.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 337 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 196 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 189 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 153 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Radiated heat from another fire | 145 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 117 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 93 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 86 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 569 | 11.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Louisville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 26% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,811,600 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,000,000 | Aircraft fire | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,000,000 | Aircraft fire | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $639,180 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $589,400 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $580,520 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Louisville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
264 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 | 19 | |
| 10-19 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 52 | |
| 30-39 | 72 | |
| 40-49 | 50 | |
| 50-59 | 28 | |
| 60-69 | 12 | |
| 70-79 | 10 | |
| 80+ | 5 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,904 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 354 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 17.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 215 | 45.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 201 | 41.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 157 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 144 | 20.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 117 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 97 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 95 | 38.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 95 | 23.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 94 | 40.0 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.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Louisville.
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.