In 2025, fire departments serving Bourne responded to 135 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $85K 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.
May peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
985 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $2.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 234 | — | |
| 2022 | 210 | -10.3% | |
| 2023 | 208 | -1.0% | |
| 2024 | 198 | -4.8% | |
| 2025 | 135 | -31.8% |
For the 11 building fires Bourne departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 164 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 35 | 21.3% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 27 | 16.5% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 14 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 6 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 6 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 5 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 4 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 4 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 54 | 32.9% |
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 Bourne mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arcing | 32 | 19.5% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 29 | 17.7% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 22 | 13.4% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 22 | 13.4% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 10 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 5.5% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 4.9% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 7 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 4 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 18 | 11.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bourne departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 94% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $85,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bourne sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
22 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 7 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 816 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 120 | 2.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 20.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 29 | 12.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 26 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 21 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 20 | 26.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 16 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 15 | 6.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 15 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 15 | 33.4 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 Bourne. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.