In 2025, fire departments serving Waverly responded to 87 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $295K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
324 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.9M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 36 | — | |
| 2022 | 79 | — | |
| 2023 | 60 | -24.1% | |
| 2024 | 62 | +3.3% | |
| 2025 | 87 | +40.3% |
* Well below Waverly'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 11 building fires Waverly departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 214 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 | 42 | 19.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 42 | 19.6% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 18 | 8.4% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 16 | 7.5% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 14 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Other | 13 | 6.1% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 13 | 6.1% | |
| 8 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 6 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Storage area, other | 4 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 41 | 19.2% |
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 Waverly mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 101 | 47.2% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 13 | 6.1% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 12 | 5.6% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 10 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 10 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 8 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 6 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 30 | 14.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Waverly departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $295,400 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,600 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $45,300 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $29,500 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Waverly sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,261 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,300 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 1,024 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 585 | 38.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 516 | 48.4 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 331 | 4.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 330 | 19.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 312 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Smoking | 311 | 37.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 5.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 275 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 264 | 39.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 240 | 17.4 mi |
Top 6 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 Waverly. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Waverly.
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.