In 2025, fire departments serving Ellerslie responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 100% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
73 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $5K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 26 | — | |
| 2022 | 19 | -26.9% | |
| 2023 | 9 | -52.6% | |
| 2024* | 8 | — | |
| 2025 | 11 | — |
* Well below Ellerslie'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 0 building fires Ellerslie departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2 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 | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 50.0% |
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 Ellerslie mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 50.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ellerslie sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,872 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 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 888 | 10.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 755 | 8.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 610 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 480 | 7.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 467 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Smoking | 394 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 345 | 41.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 315 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 300 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 190 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 145 | 40.8 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 Maryland cities with population within ±25% of Ellerslie. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Ellerslie.
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.