In 2025, fire departments serving Fairhaven responded to 170 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K 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 57% of all calls.
May peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,133 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $347K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 246 | — | |
| 2022 | 243 | -1.2% | |
| 2023 | 238 | -2.1% | |
| 2024 | 236 | -0.8% | |
| 2025 | 170 | -28.0% |
For the 13 building fires Fairhaven departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 181 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 | 35 | 19.3% | |
| 2 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 28 | 15.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 17 | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 15 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 12 | 6.6% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 9 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 7 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Exterior, exposed surface | 7 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 6 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 5 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 40 | 22.1% |
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 Fairhaven mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 76 | 42.0% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 16 | 8.8% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 13 | 7.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 12 | 6.6% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 6 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 6 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 27 | 14.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Fairhaven departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Fairhaven sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 862 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 120 | 18.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 16.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 29 | 19.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 26 | 41.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 21 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 20 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 20 | 12.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 16 | 42.8 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 02719 | 1,133 |
Six Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Fairhaven. 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.