In 2025, fire departments serving Dover responded to 427 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 51% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,252 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $974K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 457 | — | |
| 2022 | 411 | -10.1% | |
| 2023 | 451 | +9.7% | |
| 2024 | 506 | +12.2% | |
| 2025 | 427 | -15.6% |
For the 51 building fires Dover departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 553 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 | 215 | 38.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 62 | 11.2% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 37 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 27 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 26 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 23 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 21 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 19 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Other | 12 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 10 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 101 | 18.3% |
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 Dover mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 434 | 78.5% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 18 | 3.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 16 | 2.9% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 15 | 2.7% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 1.8% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 9 | 1.6% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 1.1% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 6 | 1.1% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 0.9% | |
| 10 | Candle | 4 | 0.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 30 | 5.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dover departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $2,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dover sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 14,279 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 | 47.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 6.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,535 | 24.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 1,518 | 25.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,250 | 20.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 765 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 569 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 522 | 31.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 6.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 470 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 408 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 390 | 48.2 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Delaware cities with population within ±25% of Dover. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Dover.
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.