In 2025, fire departments serving Holyoke responded to 376 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K 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 56% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,427 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $7.3M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 453 | — | |
| 2022 | 562 | +24.1% | |
| 2023 | 500 | -11.0% | |
| 2024 | 536 | +7.2% | |
| 2025 | 376 | -29.9% |
For the 33 building fires Holyoke departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,408 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 | 641 | 45.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 129 | 9.2% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 107 | 7.6% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 76 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 74 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 35 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 27 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Other | 26 | 1.8% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 19 | 1.3% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 16 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 258 | 18.3% |
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 Holyoke mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 529 | 37.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 345 | 24.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 194 | 13.8% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 55 | 3.9% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 48 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 39 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 37 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 29 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 22 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 18 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 92 | 6.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Holyoke departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 89% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $184,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $140,200 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $60,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Holyoke sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
30 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 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 5 | |
| 50-59 | 6 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,792 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,300 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 384 | 46.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 361 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 321 | 9.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 272 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 7.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 180 | 43.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 180 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Recreation and ceremony | 137 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 38.8 mi |
Top 4 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 Holyoke. 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.