In 2025, fire departments serving Springfield responded to 231 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $593K 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 62% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,748 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $6.1M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 344 | — | |
| 2022 | 406 | +18.0% | |
| 2023 | 413 | +1.7% | |
| 2024 | 354 | -14.3% | |
| 2025 | 231 | -34.7% |
For the 34 building fires Springfield departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 496 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 | 79 | 15.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 69 | 13.9% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 68 | 13.7% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 47 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 20 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 19 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 15 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 15 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 13 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 12 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 139 | 28.0% |
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 Springfield mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 152 | 30.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 54 | 10.9% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 50 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 33 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 33 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 22 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 20 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 17 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 14 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 90 | 18.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Springfield departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 85% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $593,208 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $110,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $93,727 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $70,295 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $65,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $42,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $35,831 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Springfield sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,617 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 230 | 20.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 225 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 170 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 147 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 125 | 43.6 mi | |
| 1998 | Smoking | 120 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 118 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 45.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 13.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 94 | 38.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 93 | 32.6 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 Springfield. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Springfield.
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.