In 2025, fire departments serving Easton responded to 230 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M 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 60% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,163 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $6.9M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 172 | — | |
| 2022 | 185 | +7.6% | |
| 2023 | 278 | +50.3% | |
| 2024 | 298 | +7.2% | |
| 2025 | 230 | -22.8% |
For the 49 building fires Easton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 165 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 32 | 19.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 25 | 15.2% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 20 | 12.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 14 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Other | 13 | 7.9% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 7 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 6 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 4 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 34 | 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 Easton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 71 | 43.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 18 | 10.9% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 13 | 7.9% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 12 | 7.3% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 5 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 5 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 5 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 15 | 9.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Easton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $6,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Easton 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 35,156 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 3,208 | 26.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,910 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,124 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,066 | 28.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,800 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,756 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,700 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,596 | 27.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,580 | 30.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,367 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,250 | 42.1 mi |
Top 8 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Maryland cities with population within ±25% of Easton. 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.