In 2025, fire departments serving Hagerstown responded to 1,464 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.5M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 49% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
5,687 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $14.3M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,119 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,032 | -7.8% | |
| 2023 | 981 | -4.9% | |
| 2024 | 1,091 | +11.2% | |
| 2025 | 1,464 | +34.2% |
For the 186 building fires Hagerstown departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 973 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 | Undetermined | 148 | 15.2% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 124 | 12.7% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 113 | 11.6% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 88 | 9.0% | |
| 5 | Other | 52 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 52 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 38 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 38 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 25 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 24 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 271 | 27.9% |
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 Hagerstown mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 506 | 52.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 94 | 9.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 52 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 49 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 47 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 42 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 30 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 24 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 21 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 18 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 90 | 9.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hagerstown departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 76% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $400,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $210,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $200,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $110,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hagerstown sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
61 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 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 12 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 7 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 3 | |
| 80+ | 3 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,469 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 12.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 461 | 42.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | 405 | 36.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 36.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 345 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 300 | 48.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 145 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 105 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 76 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 72 | 40.0 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Maryland cities with population within ±25% of Hagerstown. 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.