In 2025, fire departments serving Buzzards Bay responded to 25 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Accident, potential accident, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 84% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
31 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $17K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024* | 3 | — | |
| 2025 | 25 | — |
* Well below Buzzards Bay'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 Buzzards Bay departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6 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 | Outside area, other | 3 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 16.7% |
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 Buzzards Bay mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Munitions | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 16.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Buzzards Bay sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
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 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 120 | 5.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 18.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 29 | 14.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 26 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 21 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 20 | 24.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 16 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 15 | 8.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 15 | 20.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 15 | 30.7 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 Buzzards Bay. 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.