In 2025, fire departments serving Bedford responded to 271 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,161 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 197 | — | |
| 2022 | 232 | +17.8% | |
| 2023 | 226 | -2.6% | |
| 2024 | 235 | +4.0% | |
| 2025 | 271 | +15.3% |
For the 1 building fires Bedford departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 101 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 | 31 | 30.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 12 | 11.9% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 9 | 8.9% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 7 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 7 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Other | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 20 | 19.8% |
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 Bedford mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 20 | 19.8% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 15 | 14.9% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 13 | 12.9% | |
| 4 | Chemical, natural heat source, other | 11 | 10.9% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 4 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 15 | 14.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bedford departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $2,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $2,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bedford sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
9 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,801 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 18.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 18.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 18.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 18.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 18.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 18.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 16.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 18.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 19.4 mi |
Top 9 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Bedford. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bedford.
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.