In 2025, fire departments serving Marion responded to 38 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gasoline or other flammable liquid spill lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
67 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $15K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 8 | — | |
| 2022* | 6 | — | |
| 2023 | 9 | — | |
| 2024* | 6 | — | |
| 2025 | 38 | — |
* Well below Marion'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 0 building fires Marion departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | 4 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Storage area, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 7.7% |
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 Marion mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Fireworks | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 1 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Marion departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Marion sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 841 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 120 | 12.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 14.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 29 | 17.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 26 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 21 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 20 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 20 | 16.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 16 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 16 | 49.6 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 02738 | 67 |
Six Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Marion. 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.