In 2025, fire departments serving Mascot responded to 16 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $40K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 75% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
77 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $280K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 11 | — | |
| 2022* | 9 | — | |
| 2023 | 20 | — | |
| 2024 | 21 | +5.0% | |
| 2025 | 16 | -23.8% |
* Well below Mascot'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 1 building fires Mascot departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 29 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 | 8 | 27.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 7 | 24.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 13.8% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 10.3% | |
| 5 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Outside area, other | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 3.4% |
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 Mascot mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 21 | 72.4% | |
| 2 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Candle | 1 | 3.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mascot departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Trash or rubbish fire, contained | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mascot sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 102,467 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 17,140 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,586 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 8,134 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,788 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,580 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,700 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,040 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,860 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,675 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,200 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,944 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,784 | 48.1 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 Mascot. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.