In 2025, fire departments serving Philadelphia responded to 10,708 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish fire, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
59,641 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $43.3M cumulative property loss. 27 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 12,521 | — | |
| 2022 | 12,911 | +3.1% | |
| 2023 | 11,684 | -9.5% | |
| 2024 | 11,817 | +1.1% | |
| 2025 | 10,708 | -9.4% |
For the 819 building fires Philadelphia departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 28,269 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 | 6,398 | 22.6% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5,749 | 20.3% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2,997 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2,439 | 8.6% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1,303 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 937 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Function area, other | 910 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 826 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 537 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Undetermined | 526 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5,647 | 20.0% |
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 Philadelphia mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 7,784 | 27.5% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5,327 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3,280 | 11.6% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3,133 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 1,770 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 1,648 | 5.8% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1,296 | 4.6% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 957 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Match | 581 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 545 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1,948 | 6.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Philadelphia sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
87 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 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 12 | |
| 40-49 | 19 | |
| 50-59 | 12 | |
| 60-69 | 8 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 107,090 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 19,225 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 48.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 39.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 45.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 34.6 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 34.2 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
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.