In 2025, fire departments serving Penn responded to 13 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
75 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 17 | — | |
| 2022 | 17 | +0.0% | |
| 2023 | 27 | +58.8% | |
| 2024* | 1 | — | |
| 2025 | 13 | — |
* Well below Penn'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 3 building fires Penn departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Maintenance shop or area, paint shop or area | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Penn mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 1 | 14.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Penn sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,413 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 935 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 461 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 76 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 75 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 72 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 38.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 55 | 24.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 48 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Smoking | 48 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 42.5 mi |
Top 5 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 Penn. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Penn.
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.