In 2025, fire departments serving Nelson responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $7K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 91% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
31 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $7K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 4 | -20.0% | |
| 2023 | 9 | +125.0% | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 11 | — |
* Well below Nelson'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 0 building fires Nelson departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 5 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 | Outside area, other | 2 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 20.0% |
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 Nelson mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Fireworks | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 20.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Nelson departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $7,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Nelson sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,795 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 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 42.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 270 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 190 | 5.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 27.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 92 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 46.8 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six New Hampshire cities with population within ±25% of Nelson. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Nelson.
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.