In 2025, fire departments serving Chesapeake City responded to 45 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 56% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
198 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 15 | — | |
| 2022 | 28 | — | |
| 2023* | 22 | — | |
| 2024 | 88 | — | |
| 2025 | 45 | -48.9% |
* Well below Chesapeake City'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 Chesapeake City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 21 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 | Undetermined | 9 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Other | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Function area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 4 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 4.8% |
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 Chesapeake City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 14 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 4.8% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Chesapeake City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,527 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 49.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 30.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,535 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 1,518 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 765 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 741 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 569 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 522 | 19.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 470 | 25.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 408 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 390 | 49.8 mi |
Top 5 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Maryland cities with population within ±25% of Chesapeake City. 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.