In 2025, fire departments serving Nashville responded to 80 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 48% of all calls.
Apr peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
376 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.3M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 40 | — | |
| 2022 | 121 | — | |
| 2023 | 68 | -43.8% | |
| 2024 | 67 | -1.5% | |
| 2025 | 80 | +19.4% |
* Well below Nashville'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 10 building fires Nashville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 211 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 | 31 | 14.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 29 | 13.7% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 19 | 9.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 18 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 16 | 7.6% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 15 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 10 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 7 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 6 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 6 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 54 | 25.6% |
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 Nashville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 84 | 39.8% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 20 | 9.5% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 18 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 14 | 6.6% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 8 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 7 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 6 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 32 | 15.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Nashville departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $35,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $15,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Nashville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 39,872 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 9,071 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 8,294 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 3,739 | 28.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,550 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 1,535 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,299 | 47.6 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,162 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 960 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 933 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 905 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 900 | 13.9 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 Arkansas cities with population within ±25% of Nashville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Nashville.
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.