In 2025, fire departments serving Northwood responded to 65 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
264 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $906K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 51 | — | |
| 2022 | 43 | -15.7% | |
| 2023* | 16 | — | |
| 2024 | 89 | — | |
| 2025 | 65 | -27.0% |
* Well below Northwood'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 9 building fires Northwood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 47 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 | 11 | 23.4% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 10.6% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 5 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 4 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 8.5% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 6.4% | |
| 7 | Other | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Corridor, mall | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 9 | 19.1% |
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 Northwood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 18 | 38.3% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 8.5% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 3 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Match | 3 | 6.4% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 10.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Northwood departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Northwood sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,653 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 314 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 275 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 190 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 92 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 59 | 20.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 46 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 42 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 41 | 11.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 30.6 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 New Hampshire cities with population within ±25% of Northwood. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Northwood.
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.