In 2025, fire departments serving East Freedom responded to 23 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Hazardous condition, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
166 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 15 | — | |
| 2022 | 48 | — | |
| 2023 | 30 | -37.5% | |
| 2024 | 50 | +66.7% | |
| 2025 | 23 | -54.0% |
* Well below East Freedom'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 5 building fires East Freedom departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 16 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 | Outside area, other | 6 | 37.5% | |
| 2 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 6.2% |
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 East Freedom mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 4 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Warning or road flare; fusee | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 9 | Conducted heat from another fire | 1 | 6.2% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. East Freedom sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,751 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 888 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 755 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 480 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 424 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 352 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 345 | 20.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 300 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 297 | 8.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 295 | 9.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 190 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 173 | 43.5 mi |
Top 2 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 East Freedom. 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.