In 2025, fire departments serving Goshen responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $6K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 90% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
50 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $32K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 18 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023 | 7 | — | |
| 2024 | 13 | +85.7% | |
| 2025 | 10 | -23.1% |
* Well below Goshen'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 0 building fires Goshen departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 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 | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 1 | 11.1% |
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 Goshen mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arcing | 3 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 11.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Goshen departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $6,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Goshen sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,567 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,300 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 321 | 18.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 272 | 25.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 16.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 32.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 110 | 47.2 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Recreation and ceremony | 79 | 44.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 75 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 55 | 15.5 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 Goshen. 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.