In 2025, fire departments serving Boxborough responded to 39 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
195 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $762K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 66 | — | |
| 2022* | 20 | — | |
| 2023 | 30 | — | |
| 2024 | 40 | +33.3% | |
| 2025 | 39 | -2.5% |
* Well below Boxborough'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 1 building fires Boxborough departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 45 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 | 12 | 26.7% | |
| 2 | Other | 10 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 5 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 8.9% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 4 | 8.9% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 2 | 4.4% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 6.7% |
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 Boxborough mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 24 | 53.3% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 10 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 2 | 4.4% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 2 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 2.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Boxborough departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Boxborough sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,966 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 | 6.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 6.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 22.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 6.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 6.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 6.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 190 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 26.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 6.2 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 6.4 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 | 01719 | 194 |
Six Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Boxborough. 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.