In 2025, fire departments serving Gloucester responded to 254 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $533K 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 48% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,407 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $5.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 276 | — | |
| 2022 | 300 | +8.7% | |
| 2023 | 272 | -9.3% | |
| 2024 | 305 | +12.1% | |
| 2025 | 254 | -16.7% |
For the 27 building fires Gloucester departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 336 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 | 90 | 26.8% | |
| 2 | Wildland, woods | 40 | 11.9% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 24 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 23 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 18 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Other | 14 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 14 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 12 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 8 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 7 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 86 | 25.6% |
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 Gloucester mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 115 | 34.2% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 36 | 10.7% | |
| 3 | Cigarette | 35 | 10.4% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 23 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 19 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 17 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 13 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 12 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 9 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 48 | 14.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Gloucester departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 89% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $533,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $397,300 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $46,750 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Gloucester sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
13 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 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 8 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,264 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 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 16.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 15.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54 | 12.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Smoking | 50 | 18.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 32 | 17.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 27 | 14.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 26 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 25 | 26.1 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 Gloucester. 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.