In 2025, fire departments serving Nashua responded to 23 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 78% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
68 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.2M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022* | 7 | — | |
| 2023* | 6 | — | |
| 2024 | 27 | — | |
| 2025 | 23 | -14.8% |
* Well below Nashua'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 3 building fires Nashua departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 7.7% |
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 Nashua mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Cigarette | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Conducted heat from another fire | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Nashua departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $7,500 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Nashua sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,220 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 750 | 4.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 4.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 23.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 11.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 140 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 120 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 85 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 85 | 8.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 19.8 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50658 | 68 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Nashua. 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.