In 2025, fire departments serving North Reading responded to 141 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $25K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 50% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
774 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 169 | — | |
| 2022* | 88 | — | |
| 2023 | 161 | — | |
| 2024 | 215 | +33.5% | |
| 2025 | 141 | -34.4% |
* Well below North Reading'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 7 building fires North Reading departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 134 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 | 22 | 16.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 22 | 16.4% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 21 | 15.7% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 12 | 9.0% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 10 | 7.5% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 9 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Other | 5 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 3.7% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 18 | 13.4% |
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 North Reading mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 62 | 46.3% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 16 | 11.9% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 6.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 6 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 17 | 12.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by North Reading departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $15,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $4,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000 | Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $500 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1 | Fuel burner/boiler malfunction, fire confined | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. North Reading sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,655 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 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 21.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 29.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 4.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 9.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 28.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 49.2 mi |
Top 3 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 North Reading. 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.