In 2025, fire departments serving Malden responded to 312 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 45% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,752 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $2.3M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 357 | — | |
| 2022 | 364 | +2.0% | |
| 2023 | 387 | +6.3% | |
| 2024 | 332 | -14.2% | |
| 2025 | 312 | -6.0% |
For the 32 building fires Malden departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 318 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 | 85 | 26.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 29 | 9.1% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 20 | 6.3% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 20 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 17 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 16 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 14 | 4.4% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 14 | 4.4% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 12 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 8 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 83 | 26.1% |
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 Malden mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 145 | 45.6% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 71 | 22.3% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 22 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 19 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 8 | 2.5% | |
| 6 | Candle | 8 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 6 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Match | 5 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Sunlight | 5 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 23 | 7.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Malden departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $3,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $600 | Hazardous condition, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Malden sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
47 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 16 | |
| 40-49 | 17 | |
| 50-59 | 7 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,655 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 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 12.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 30.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 13.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 7.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 30.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 38.6 mi |
Top 6 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 Malden. 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.