In 2025, fire departments serving Odenton responded to 155 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K 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 64% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
573 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 25 | — | |
| 2022 | 87 | — | |
| 2023 | 149 | +71.3% | |
| 2024 | 157 | +5.4% | |
| 2025 | 155 | -1.3% |
* Well below Odenton'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 Odenton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 98 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 | 17 | 17.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 13 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Other | 7 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 7 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 6 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 6.1% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 6 | 6.1% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 4 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 4 | 4.1% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 4 | 4.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 24 | 24.5% |
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 Odenton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 46 | 46.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 8.2% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 7 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 6 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 5 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 4 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Match | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Chemical, natural heat source, other | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 9 | 9.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Odenton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Odenton sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,941 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 522 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Recreation and ceremony | 500 | 3.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 461 | 31.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 431 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 408 | 16.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 344 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 150 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Natural | 150 | 31.9 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 110 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 16.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 80 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 76 | 43.3 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 Maryland cities with population within ±25% of Odenton. 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.