In 2025, fire departments serving Malvern responded to 197 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $80K 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 62% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
654 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 70 | — | |
| 2022* | 74 | — | |
| 2023* | 71 | — | |
| 2024 | 242 | — | |
| 2025 | 197 | -18.6% |
* Well below Malvern'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 12 building fires Malvern departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 120 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 28 | 23.3% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 15 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 14 | 11.7% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 10 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 10 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 5 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Other | 4 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 4 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 22 | 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 Malvern mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 36 | 30.0% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 33 | 27.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 6 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 5 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 5 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 9.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Malvern departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $80,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $45,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Malvern sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
9 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,434 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,950 | 44.8 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,900 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,000 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 910 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 741 | 18.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 740 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 710 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 569 | 41.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 500 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 470 | 18.4 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 Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Malvern. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Malvern.
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.