In 2025, fire departments serving Chesterfield responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 82% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
52 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $450K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 6 | — | |
| 2022* | 4 | — | |
| 2023 | 21 | — | |
| 2024 | 10 | -52.4% | |
| 2025 | 11 | +10.0% |
* Well below Chesterfield'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 2 building fires Chesterfield departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 5 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 | Function area, other | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 1 | 20.0% |
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 Chesterfield mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 40.0% | |
| 3 | Lightning | 1 | 20.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Chesterfield sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,940 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,300 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 384 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 321 | 14.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 272 | 27.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 16.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 35.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 110 | 43.1 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Recreation and ceremony | 79 | 40.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 75 | 43.4 mi |
Top 3 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 Chesterfield. 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.