In 2025, fire departments serving Freetown responded to 150 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 65% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
387 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.9M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 106 | — | |
| 2024 | 131 | +23.6% | |
| 2025 | 150 | +14.5% |
* Well below Freetown'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 7 building fires Freetown departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 96 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 | 20 | 20.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 12 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 11 | 11.5% | |
| 4 | Other | 8 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 6 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 5 | 5.2% | |
| 8 | Storage area, other | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 19 | 19.8% |
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 Freetown mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 23 | 24.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 15 | 15.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 13 | 13.5% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 7.3% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 7 | 7.3% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 5.2% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Radiated heat from another fire | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 12 | 12.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Freetown departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $25,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Freetown sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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. 1,056 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 | 36.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 120 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 8.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 40 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 35 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 43.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 47.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 30 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 29 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 26 | 31.1 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 Freetown. 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.