In 2025, fire departments serving Haverford responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
96 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 11 | — | |
| 2022 | 30 | — | |
| 2023 | 34 | +13.3% | |
| 2024* | 9 | — | |
| 2025 | 12 | — |
* Well below Haverford'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 2 building fires Haverford departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 22 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 | 5 | 22.7% | |
| 2 | Dining room, cafeteria bar area, beverage service | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 6 | Other | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Function area, other | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 10 | Wall assembly | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 4 | 18.2% |
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 Haverford mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 27.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 6 | 27.3% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 10 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 4.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Haverford departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Haverford sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 49,713 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 41.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 32.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,950 | 34.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,900 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,600 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,535 | 47.2 mi |
Top 3 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 Haverford. 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.