In 2025, fire departments serving Nottingham responded to 53 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $204K 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 53% of all calls.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
317 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $291K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 72 | — | |
| 2022* | 25 | — | |
| 2023 | 90 | — | |
| 2024 | 77 | -14.4% | |
| 2025 | 53 | -31.2% |
* Well below Nottingham'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 9 building fires Nottingham departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 41 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 | 8 | 19.5% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 12.2% | |
| 3 | Other | 4 | 9.8% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 9.8% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 7.3% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 2 | 4.9% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 4.9% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 2 | 4.9% | |
| 9 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Storage area, other | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 9 | 22.0% |
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 Nottingham mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 15 | 36.6% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 14.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 12.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 4 | 9.8% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 7.3% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 7.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Nottingham departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $204,105 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Nottingham sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,594 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 314 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 275 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 92 | 31.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 59 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54 | 37.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Smoking | 50 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 42 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 41 | 18.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 29.8 mi |
Top 5 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 Nottingham. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Nottingham.
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.