In 2025, fire departments serving Pascoag responded to 67 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
450 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 87 | — | |
| 2022 | 115 | +32.2% | |
| 2023 | 75 | -34.8% | |
| 2024 | 106 | +41.3% | |
| 2025 | 67 | -36.8% |
For the 6 building fires Pascoag departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 220 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 73 | 33.2% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 41 | 18.6% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 17 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 17 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 11 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Other | 8 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 8 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 7 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 7 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 28 | 12.7% |
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 Pascoag mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 62 | 28.2% | |
| 2 | Cigarette lighter | 40 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 23 | 10.5% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 17 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 9 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 9 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 5 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 30 | 13.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Pascoag departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $8,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,000 | Water vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Pascoag sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
20 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 | 5 | |
| 10-19 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 4 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,187 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 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 37.8 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 361 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | 94 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 35.9 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 02859 | 159 |
Six Rhode Island cities with population within ±25% of Pascoag. 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.