In 2025, fire departments serving Boston responded to 5,069 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $4.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
30,731 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $186.1M cumulative property loss. 5 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 6,353 | — | |
| 2022 | 6,926 | +9.0% | |
| 2023 | 6,447 | -6.9% | |
| 2024 | 5,936 | -7.9% | |
| 2025 | 5,069 | -14.6% |
For the 226 building fires Boston departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 5,080 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 | 1,472 | 29.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 432 | 8.5% | |
| 3 | Other | 424 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 343 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 207 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 193 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 163 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 163 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 136 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 119 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,428 | 28.1% |
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 Boston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,761 | 34.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 530 | 10.4% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 485 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 480 | 9.4% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 314 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 267 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 261 | 5.1% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 215 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 117 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Sunlight | 109 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 541 | 10.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Boston departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 36% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $4,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $800,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $800,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Boston sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
14 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,685 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 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 5.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 21.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 14.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 31.4 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.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Boston.
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.