In 2025, fire departments serving Bear responded to 370 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K 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 63% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,942 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $283K cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 342 | — | |
| 2022 | 410 | +19.9% | |
| 2023 | 362 | -11.7% | |
| 2024 | 458 | +26.5% | |
| 2025 | 370 | -19.2% |
For the 144 building fires Bear departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 530 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 | 130 | 24.5% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 118 | 22.3% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 42 | 7.9% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 42 | 7.9% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 16 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Other | 14 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 14 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 13 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 13 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 12 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 116 | 21.9% |
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 Bear mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 293 | 55.3% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 108 | 20.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 20 | 3.8% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 19 | 3.6% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 12 | 2.3% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 12 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 8 | 1.5% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 8 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 35 | 6.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bear departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $3,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bear sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
39 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 | 7 | |
| 10-19 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 7 | |
| 30-39 | 8 | |
| 40-49 | 7 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,383 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 42.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,950 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,535 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 1,518 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 910 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 765 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 741 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 740 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 569 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 522 | 29.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 31.2 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.
Six Delaware cities with population within ±25% of Bear. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bear.
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.