In 2025, fire departments serving Montgomeryville responded to 28 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 71% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
180 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $10K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 7 | — | |
| 2022 | 51 | — | |
| 2023 | 41 | -19.6% | |
| 2024 | 53 | +29.3% | |
| 2025 | 28 | -47.2% |
* Well below Montgomeryville'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 Montgomeryville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 32 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 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 13 | 40.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 15.6% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 3 | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 2 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Roof surface: exterior | 2 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 2 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Laboratory | 1 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 3.1% |
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 Montgomeryville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 24 | 75.0% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 9.4% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 3.1% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 3.1% | |
| 6 | Fireworks | 1 | 3.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Montgomeryville sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 32,970 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,950 | 43.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,900 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,600 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,012 | 49.9 mi |
Top 7 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 Montgomeryville. 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.