In 2025, fire departments serving North Wales responded to 136 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K 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 70% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
731 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 56 | — | |
| 2022 | 212 | — | |
| 2023 | 162 | -23.6% | |
| 2024 | 165 | +1.9% | |
| 2025 | 136 | -17.6% |
* Well below North Wales'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 21 building fires North Wales departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 120 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 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 32 | 26.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 20 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 17 | 14.2% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 11 | 9.2% | |
| 5 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 7 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Other | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 18 | 15.0% |
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 North Wales mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 83 | 69.2% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Cigarette | 7 | 5.8% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 2 | 1.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by North Wales departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. North Wales sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 35,535 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 49.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,950 | 42.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,900 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,600 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 44.9 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of North Wales. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in North Wales.
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.