In 2025, fire departments serving Nashua responded to 537 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $469K 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 44% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,778 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $8.3M cumulative property loss. 8 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 569 | — | |
| 2022 | 421 | -26.0% | |
| 2023 | 591 | +40.4% | |
| 2024 | 660 | +11.7% | |
| 2025 | 537 | -18.6% |
For the 31 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 705 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 | 156 | 22.1% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 109 | 15.5% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 85 | 12.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 62 | 8.8% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 43 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 38 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 28 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 17 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Other | 16 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 12 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 139 | 19.7% |
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 | 456 | 64.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 49 | 7.0% | |
| 3 | Cigarette | 39 | 5.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 26 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 23 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 18 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 15 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 13 | 1.8% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 12 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 9 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 45 | 6.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Nashua departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 88% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $468,500 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building or structure weakened or collapsed | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $45,784 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Nashua sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
46 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,058 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 19.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 19.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 19.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 19.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 190 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 18.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 92 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 32.6 mi |
Top 8 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Nashua.
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.