In 2025, fire departments serving Coatesville responded to 199 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $75K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,519 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 277 | — | |
| 2022 | 353 | +27.4% | |
| 2023 | 323 | -8.5% | |
| 2024 | 367 | +13.6% | |
| 2025 | 199 | -45.8% |
For the 60 building fires Coatesville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 321 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 | 114 | 35.5% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 31 | 9.7% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 26 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 15 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 15 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 14 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 13 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 10 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 9 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 8 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 66 | 20.6% |
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 Coatesville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 105 | 32.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 103 | 32.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 22 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 20 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 2.8% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 9 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 8 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 6 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 6 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 25 | 7.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Coatesville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Coatesville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,643 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 741 | 16.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 522 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 470 | 24.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 273 | 46.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 120 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 110 | 47.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 101 | 37.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 40.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 31.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 80 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 80 | 45.4 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Coatesville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
4 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Coatesville.
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.