In 2025, fire departments serving Heath responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 80% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
59 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $3K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022 | 8 | — | |
| 2023 | 22 | +175.0% | |
| 2024 | 17 | -22.7% | |
| 2025 | 10 | -41.2% |
* Well below Heath'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 Heath departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 5 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 | Fuel tank, fuel line | 2 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 1 | 20.0% |
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 Heath mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 20.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Heath sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,395 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 321 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 272 | 16.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 270 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 190 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 24.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 83 | 48.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 75 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 55 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 51 | 35.8 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 Heath. 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.