In 2025, fire departments serving Oak Ridge responded to 33 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $20.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 82% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
124 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $40.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 38 | — | |
| 2022 | 37 | -2.6% | |
| 2023* | 1 | — | |
| 2024 | 15 | — | |
| 2025 | 33 | +120.0% |
* Well below Oak Ridge'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 8 building fires Oak Ridge departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Switchgear area, transformer vault | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 1 | 7.7% |
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 Oak Ridge mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 38.5% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Lightning | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Oak Ridge departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $20,000,000 | Building fires | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000,000 | Building fires | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,500 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $500 | Arcing, shorted electrical equipment | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $500 | Natural vegetation fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $9 | Natural vegetation fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Oak Ridge sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,241 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Natural | 3,696 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 675 | 29.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 500 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 363 | 23.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 350 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 289 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 230 | 49.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 214 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 175 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 166 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 161 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 45.5 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 North Carolina cities with population within ±25% of Oak Ridge. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Oak Ridge.
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.