In 2025, fire departments serving Newton responded to 241 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 49% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,286 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $4.9M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 262 | — | |
| 2022 | 229 | -12.6% | |
| 2023 | 288 | +25.8% | |
| 2024 | 266 | -7.6% | |
| 2025 | 241 | -9.4% |
For the 26 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 403 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 | 79 | 19.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 46 | 11.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 36 | 8.9% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 33 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 22 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 19 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 12 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 11 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 10 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 10 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 125 | 31.0% |
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 | 113 | 28.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 42 | 10.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 41 | 10.2% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 33 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 20 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 19 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 18 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 13 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 12 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 11 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 81 | 20.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Newton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 87% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $184,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $159,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $73,750 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Newton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
16 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 5 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 50,921 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 10,120 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,431 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 5,500 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 5,015 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,163 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 2,579 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 2,404 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 2,235 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Other causes | 2,005 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1,760 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,450 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 1,268 | 43.3 mi |
Top 5 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six North Carolina 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.