In 2025, fire departments serving Bethlehem responded to 449 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $179K 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 53% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,563 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $6.0M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 903 | — | |
| 2022* | 410 | — | |
| 2023 | 790 | — | |
| 2024 | 1,011 | +28.0% | |
| 2025 | 449 | -55.6% |
* Well below Bethlehem'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 48 building fires Bethlehem departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 754 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 | 140 | 18.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 114 | 15.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 92 | 12.2% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 89 | 11.8% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 40 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 20 | 2.7% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 19 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 16 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 16 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 16 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 192 | 25.5% |
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 Bethlehem mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 394 | 52.3% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 54 | 7.2% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 53 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 46 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 32 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 24 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 24 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 18 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 17 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 17 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 75 | 9.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bethlehem departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 89% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $178,837 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $55,752 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $31,906 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $20,907 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $9,999 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $9,757 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bethlehem sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
32 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 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 6 | |
| 50-59 | 7 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 22,902 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,949 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,265 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,126 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 995 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 848 | 20.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 812 | 36.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 741 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 674 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 647 | 38.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 615 | 44.4 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 Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Bethlehem. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bethlehem.
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.