In 2025, fire departments serving New Bedford responded to 768 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $393K 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 55% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,111 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $28.3M cumulative property loss. 9 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 808 | — | |
| 2022 | 866 | +7.2% | |
| 2023 | 810 | -6.5% | |
| 2024 | 859 | +6.0% | |
| 2025 | 768 | -10.6% |
For the 70 building fires New Bedford departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,168 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 | 181 | 15.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 159 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 156 | 13.4% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 77 | 6.6% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 60 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 49 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 40 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Other | 35 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 32 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 31 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 348 | 29.8% |
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 New Bedford mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 615 | 52.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 87 | 7.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 78 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 68 | 5.8% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 53 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 45 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 36 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 30 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 26 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 18 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 112 | 9.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by New Bedford departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 60% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $393,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $348,600 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $348,600 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. New Bedford sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
84 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 | 3 | |
| 10-19 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 9 | |
| 30-39 | 11 | |
| 40-49 | 20 | |
| 50-59 | 13 | |
| 60-69 | 14 | |
| 70-79 | 8 | |
| 80+ | 4 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 913 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 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 120 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 14.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 35 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 29 | 24.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 26 | 38.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 | 42.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 25 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 21 | 27.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 20 | 38.2 mi |
Top 10 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 New Bedford. 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.