In 2025, fire departments serving Dedham responded to 36 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $16K 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 70% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
231 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $226K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 22 | — | |
| 2022 | 34 | — | |
| 2023 | 62 | +82.4% | |
| 2024 | 77 | +24.2% | |
| 2025 | 36 | -53.2% |
* Well below Dedham'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 10 building fires Dedham departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 10 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 | Maintenance shop or area, paint shop or area | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 10.0% |
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 Dedham mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Molten, hot material | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 7 | Blasting agent | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dedham departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $16,300 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dedham sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,744 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 770 | 45.4 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 657 | 44.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 515 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 495 | 45.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 215 | 36.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 205 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 200 | 35.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 177 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 161 | 32.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 156 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 124 | 25.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 120 | 44.0 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 | 04429 | 231 |
Six Maine cities with population within ±25% of Dedham. 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.