In 2025, fire departments serving Brockton responded to 865 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $600K 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 60% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
5,374 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $24.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,113 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,001 | -10.1% | |
| 2023 | 1,219 | +21.8% | |
| 2024 | 1,176 | -3.5% | |
| 2025 | 865 | -26.4% |
For the 63 building fires Brockton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,119 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 | 648 | 30.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 319 | 15.1% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 275 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Other | 147 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 110 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 70 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 45 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 36 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 35 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 35 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 399 | 18.8% |
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 Brockton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 859 | 40.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 362 | 17.1% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 193 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 151 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 117 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 79 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 75 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 55 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 38 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 35 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 155 | 7.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Brockton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 71% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $600,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $450,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Brockton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
203 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 | 3 | |
| 10-19 | 10 | |
| 20-29 | 21 | |
| 30-39 | 39 | |
| 40-49 | 59 | |
| 50-59 | 38 | |
| 60-69 | 22 | |
| 70-79 | 3 | |
| 80+ | 8 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,803 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 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 16.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 120 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 42.0 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.
Six Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Brockton. 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.