In 2025, fire departments serving Bridgewater responded to 119 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Bridgewater's departments reported 119 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 199 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
997 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $3.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 247 | — | |
| 2022 | 155 | -37.2% | |
| 2023 | 216 | +39.4% | |
| 2024 | 260 | +20.4% | |
| 2025* | 119 | — |
* Well below Bridgewater'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 7 building fires Bridgewater departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 274 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 90 | 32.8% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 31 | 11.3% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 20 | 7.3% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 18 | 6.6% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 18 | 6.6% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 12 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 11 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 8 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Other | 7 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 7 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 52 | 19.0% |
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 Bridgewater mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 58 | 21.2% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 57 | 20.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 30 | 10.9% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 22 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 13 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 11 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 11 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 9 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 7 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 46 | 16.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bridgewater departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $25,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $8,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $2,500 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bridgewater sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,579 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 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 23.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 120 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 6.9 mi |
Top 2 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 Bridgewater. 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.