In 2025, fire departments serving Bryn Mawr responded to 70 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $75K 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 64% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
445 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $460K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 86 | — | |
| 2022 | 110 | +27.9% | |
| 2023 | 92 | -16.4% | |
| 2024 | 87 | -5.4% | |
| 2025 | 70 | -19.5% |
For the 4 building fires Bryn Mawr departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 95 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 | 21 | 22.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 20 | 21.1% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 19 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 5 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Corridor, mall | 2 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 14 | 14.7% |
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 Bryn Mawr mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 41 | 43.2% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 18 | 18.9% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 11 | 11.6% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 9 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 5 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 2.1% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 5.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bryn Mawr departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bryn Mawr sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 48,766 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 42.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,950 | 35.3 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,900 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,600 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,535 | 49.5 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 | 19010 | 445 |
Six Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Bryn Mawr. 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.