In 2025, fire departments serving Newton responded to 920 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K 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 67% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,359 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $905K cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 861 | — | |
| 2022 | 863 | +0.2% | |
| 2023 | 896 | +3.8% | |
| 2024 | 819 | -8.6% | |
| 2025 | 920 | +12.3% |
For the 11 building fires Newton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 316 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 | 94 | 29.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 33 | 10.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 32 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 31 | 9.8% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 16 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 8 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 7 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 6 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 6 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Other | 5 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 78 | 24.7% |
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 Newton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 138 | 43.7% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 42 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 37 | 11.7% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 18 | 5.7% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 10 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 10 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Sunlight | 9 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 6 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 35 | 11.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Newton departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Newton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,695 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 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 3.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 25.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 22.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 17.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 24.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 34.4 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 Newton. 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.