In 2025, fire departments serving Framingham responded to 894 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,364 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $6.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 761 | — | |
| 2022 | 830 | +9.1% | |
| 2023 | 891 | +7.3% | |
| 2024 | 988 | +10.9% | |
| 2025 | 894 | -9.5% |
For the 36 building fires Framingham departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 338 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 | 56 | 16.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 42 | 12.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 32 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 30 | 8.9% | |
| 5 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 14 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 13 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Other | 11 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 10 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 9 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 9 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 112 | 33.1% |
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 Framingham mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 115 | 34.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 58 | 17.2% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 26 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 24 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 24 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 23 | 6.8% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 17 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 11 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 7 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Chemical reaction | 7 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 26 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Framingham departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 71% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Framingham sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
27 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 6 | |
| 40-49 | 10 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,835 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 16.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 16.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 13.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 16.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 16.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 17.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 16.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 16.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 15.8 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 Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Framingham. 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.