In 2025, fire departments serving Pennsburg responded to 29 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 72% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
138 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 28 | — | |
| 2022 | 35 | +25.0% | |
| 2023 | 30 | -14.3% | |
| 2024* | 16 | — | |
| 2025 | 29 | — |
* Well below Pennsburg'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 7 building fires Pennsburg departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 21 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 | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 2 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 6 | Other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 6 | 28.6% |
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 Pennsburg mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 5 | 23.8% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 4 | 19.0% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Match | 1 | 4.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Pennsburg departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000 | Fuel burner/boiler malfunction, fire confined | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Pennsburg sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 7,696 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 848 | 28.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 741 | 18.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 470 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 328 | 46.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 325 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 308 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 282 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 263 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 258 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 257 | 49.7 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 Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Pennsburg. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Pennsburg.
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.