In 2025, fire departments serving Gardner responded to 432 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M 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 63% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,905 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $4.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 364 | — | |
| 2022 | 326 | -10.4% | |
| 2023 | 351 | +7.7% | |
| 2024 | 432 | +23.1% | |
| 2025 | 432 | +0.0% |
For the 43 building fires Gardner departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 259 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 | 69 | 26.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 22 | 8.5% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 15 | 5.8% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 13 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Wall surface: exterior | 11 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 11 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 10 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 9 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 83 | 32.0% |
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 Gardner mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 58 | 22.4% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 46 | 17.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 34 | 13.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 27 | 10.4% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 18 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 12 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 10 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 32 | 12.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Gardner departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 92% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $411,700 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $294,500 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $291,700 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $42,305 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Gardner sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
30 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 5 | |
| 40-49 | 10 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,003 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 | 18.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 18.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 18.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 18.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 18.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 190 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 18.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 11.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 18.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 59 | 47.8 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 Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Gardner. 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.