In 2025, fire departments serving Smyrna responded to 645 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $486K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,419 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $11.0M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 623 | — | |
| 2022 | 781 | +25.4% | |
| 2023 | 752 | -3.7% | |
| 2024 | 618 | -17.8% | |
| 2025 | 645 | +4.4% |
For the 46 building fires Smyrna departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 654 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 | 170 | 26.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 116 | 17.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 61 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 46 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 42 | 6.4% | |
| 6 | Other | 28 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 16 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 13 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 13 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 12 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 137 | 20.9% |
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 Smyrna mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 397 | 60.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 45 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 37 | 5.7% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 33 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 33 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 19 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 13 | 2.0% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 11 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 10 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 10 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 46 | 7.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Smyrna departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 74% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $486,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $300,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $180,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Smyrna sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
13 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,034 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 | 14.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 225 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 191 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 178 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 170 | 8.4 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 153 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 143 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 118 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 116 | 20.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 111 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 104 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 101 | 46.2 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 Tennessee cities with population within ±25% of Smyrna. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Smyrna.
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.