In 2025, fire departments serving Ocean City responded to 256 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 54% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,040 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 184 | — | |
| 2022 | 194 | +5.4% | |
| 2023 | 197 | +1.5% | |
| 2024 | 209 | +6.1% | |
| 2025 | 256 | +22.5% |
For the 34 building fires Ocean City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 172 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 | Undetermined | 24 | 14.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 18 | 10.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 16 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 15 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Other | 11 | 6.4% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 5.8% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 8 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 7 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 6 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 6 | 3.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 51 | 29.7% |
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 Ocean City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 74 | 43.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 24 | 14.0% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 20 | 11.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 12 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Fireworks | 9 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 3 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 2 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 17 | 9.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ocean City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
10 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 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 30,842 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 3,208 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,910 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,124 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,066 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,800 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,756 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,700 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,580 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,348 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,250 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,238 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,057 | 49.7 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 Maryland cities with population within ±25% of Ocean City. 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.