In 2025, fire departments serving Laurel responded to 174 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 62% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
806 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $655K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 160 | — | |
| 2022 | 136 | -15.0% | |
| 2023 | 186 | +36.8% | |
| 2024 | 150 | -19.4% | |
| 2025 | 174 | +16.0% |
For the 52 building fires Laurel departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 182 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 | 35 | 19.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 29 | 15.9% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 28 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Wall surface: exterior | 10 | 5.5% | |
| 5 | Other | 7 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 6 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Wall assembly | 6 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Outside area, other | 6 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 5 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 44 | 24.2% |
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 Laurel mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 86 | 47.3% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 18 | 9.9% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 17 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 14 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 7 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 3 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 13 | 7.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Laurel departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Laurel sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 35,804 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 3,208 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,910 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,124 | 26.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,066 | 26.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,800 | 25.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,756 | 25.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,700 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,596 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,580 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,367 | 29.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,348 | 45.5 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 Delaware cities with population within ±25% of Laurel. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Laurel.
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.