In 2025, fire departments serving New Braintree responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 78% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
99 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $217K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 26 | — | |
| 2022 | 16 | -38.5% | |
| 2023 | 12 | -25.0% | |
| 2024 | 27 | +125.0% | |
| 2025 | 18 | -33.3% |
For the 0 building fires New Braintree departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 18 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 | 5 | 27.8% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 5 | 27.8% | |
| 3 | Other | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Fuel tank, fuel line | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 5.6% |
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 Braintree mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 4 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 1 | 5.6% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. New Braintree sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,256 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 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 27.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 321 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 27.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 27.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 20.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | 94 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 27.6 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 | 01531 | 99 |
Six Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of New Braintree. 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.