In 2025, fire departments serving Hopedale responded to 16 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
91 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $110K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 17 | — | |
| 2022* | 9 | — | |
| 2023 | 28 | — | |
| 2024 | 21 | -25.0% | |
| 2025 | 16 | -23.8% |
* Well below Hopedale'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 3 building fires Hopedale departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 24 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 | 11 | 45.8% | |
| 2 | Other | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 4.2% |
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 Hopedale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 15 | 62.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Candle | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 4.2% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hopedale sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,144 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 23.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 78 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 75 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 25.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 49 | 30.0 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 48 | 18.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 30.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 26.0 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 31 | 5.4 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 Ohio cities with population within ±25% of Hopedale. 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.