In 2025, fire departments serving Emsworth responded to 23 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 82% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
134 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $200K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 16 | — | |
| 2022 | 23 | — | |
| 2023 | 40 | +73.9% | |
| 2024 | 32 | -20.0% | |
| 2025 | 23 | -28.1% |
* Well below Emsworth'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 Emsworth departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | 4 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Structural area, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 7.7% |
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 Emsworth mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 11 | 84.6% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 7.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Emsworth sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,180 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 173 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 152 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 106 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 78 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 60 | 45.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 48 | 26.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 45 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 41 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 38 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 31 | 49.3 mi |
Top 3 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 Emsworth. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Emsworth.
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.