In 2025, fire departments serving Haverhill responded to 513 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 63% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,995 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $14.4M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 654 | — | |
| 2022 | 563 | -13.9% | |
| 2023 | 573 | +1.8% | |
| 2024 | 692 | +20.8% | |
| 2025 | 513 | -25.9% |
For the 23 building fires Haverhill departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 501 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 | 120 | 24.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 41 | 8.2% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 41 | 8.2% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 31 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 26 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 24 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 24 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 21 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Other | 13 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 13 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 147 | 29.3% |
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 Haverhill mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 210 | 41.9% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 56 | 11.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 53 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 38 | 7.6% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 30 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 27 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 14 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 11 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 10 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 43 | 8.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Haverhill departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 89% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Haverhill sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
68 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 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 25 | |
| 40-49 | 15 | |
| 50-59 | 16 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,989 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 314 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 11.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 34.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 59 | 40.0 mi |
Top 9 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 Haverhill. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Haverhill.
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.