In 2025, fire departments serving Baltimore responded to 4,976 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $130K 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 59% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
23,185 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $12.8M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1,366 | — | |
| 2022 | 5,799 | — | |
| 2023 | 5,653 | -2.5% | |
| 2024 | 5,391 | -4.6% | |
| 2025 | 4,976 | -7.7% |
* Well below Baltimore'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 101 building fires Baltimore departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,868 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 522 | 27.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 192 | 10.3% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 146 | 7.8% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 93 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 91 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 82 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Other | 76 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 59 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 47 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Undetermined | 46 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 514 | 27.5% |
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 Baltimore mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 449 | 24.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 412 | 22.1% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 161 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 116 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 112 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 94 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 93 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 85 | 4.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 71 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 54 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 221 | 11.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Baltimore departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 25% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $130,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $47,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Baltimore sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,351 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 522 | 28.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Recreation and ceremony | 500 | 20.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 461 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 431 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 408 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 150 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 76 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 75 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 67 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 59 | 14.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 28.2 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
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.