In 2025, fire departments serving Sugar Hill responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2K 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 64% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
32 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $77K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022 | 7 | — | |
| 2023* | 2 | — | |
| 2024 | 12 | — | |
| 2025 | 11 | -8.3% |
* Well below Sugar Hill'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 2 building fires Sugar Hill 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 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 5 | 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 Sugar Hill mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 60.0% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 20.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sugar Hill departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sugar Hill sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,559 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 | 329 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 275 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 139 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 137 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 32.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 100 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 72 | 12.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 47 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 24 | 36.0 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 New Hampshire cities with population within ±25% of Sugar Hill. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.