In 2025, fire departments serving Abbottstown responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 100% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
78 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $58K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 16 | — | |
| 2022 | 26 | +62.5% | |
| 2023 | 18 | -30.8% | |
| 2024* | 8 | — | |
| 2025 | 10 | — |
* Well below Abbottstown'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 4 building fires Abbottstown departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 8 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 | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Storage area, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 12.5% |
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 Abbottstown mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 37.5% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 12.5% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Abbottstown sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,916 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 | 935 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 74 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 72 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 59 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 55 | 19.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 48 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 14.5 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 Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Abbottstown. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Abbottstown.
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.