In 2025, fire departments serving Nashville responded to 4,557 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $21.3M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
22,505 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $155.3M cumulative property loss. 15 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 4,237 | — | |
| 2022 | 4,404 | +3.9% | |
| 2023 | 5,261 | +19.5% | |
| 2024 | 4,046 | -23.1% | |
| 2025 | 4,557 | +12.6% |
For the 251 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 4,780 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 | 1,480 | 31.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 662 | 13.8% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 421 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 308 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 209 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 125 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 110 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 110 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 94 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 81 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,180 | 24.7% |
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 Nashville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2,455 | 51.4% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 375 | 7.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 339 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 283 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 281 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 150 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 149 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 105 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 85 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 67 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 491 | 10.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Nashville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 55% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $21,250,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 2 | $4,465,500 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $2,630,500 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $2,619,900 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $2,127,050 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,749,640 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,390,250 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $1,343,160 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Nashville sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
45 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 | 3 | |
| 10-19 | 5 | |
| 20-29 | 9 | |
| 30-39 | 6 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 8 | |
| 60-69 | 5 | |
| 70-79 | 4 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,123 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 328 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 312 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 230 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 225 | 18.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 170 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 157 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 118 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 116 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 104 | 40.5 mi | |
| 1998 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 32.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 18.7 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.
Six Tennessee cities with population within ±25% of Nashville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 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.