In 2025, fire departments serving Boswell responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K 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 60% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
51 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $12K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 10 | — | |
| 2022 | 10 | +0.0% | |
| 2023 | 10 | +0.0% | |
| 2024* | 6 | — | |
| 2025 | 15 | — |
* Well below Boswell'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 2 building fires Boswell departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6 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 | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 1 | 16.7% |
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 Boswell mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 16.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Boswell departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Boswell sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 10 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 275 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 21.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 | 23.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 20 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 19.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 15 | 26.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 15 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 18.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 10 | 40.5 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 47921 | 51 |
Six Indiana cities with population within ±25% of Boswell. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Boswell.
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.