In 2025, fire departments serving Greensburg responded to 609 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $55K 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 78% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,938 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $3.0M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 900 | — | |
| 2022 | 935 | +3.9% | |
| 2023 | 873 | -6.6% | |
| 2024 | 621 | -28.9% | |
| 2025 | 609 | -1.9% |
For the 36 building fires Greensburg departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,334 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 | 1,022 | 76.6% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 51 | 3.8% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 37 | 2.8% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 23 | 1.7% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 20 | 1.5% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 18 | 1.3% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 13 | 1.0% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 11 | 0.8% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 10 | 0.7% | |
| 10 | Function area, other | 9 | 0.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 120 | 9.0% |
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 Greensburg mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1,012 | 75.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 97 | 7.3% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 41 | 3.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 37 | 2.8% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 19 | 1.4% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 17 | 1.3% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 15 | 1.1% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 15 | 1.1% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 14 | 1.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 12 | 0.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 55 | 4.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Greensburg departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $55,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $250 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Greensburg sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
25 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 5 | |
| 50-59 | 9 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 4 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,827 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Smoking | 394 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 190 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 173 | 15.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 173 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 152 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 105 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 90 | 26.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 60 | 22.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 46 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 36 | 23.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 21.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 35 | 41.0 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Greensburg. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Greensburg.
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.