In 2025, fire departments serving Quincy responded to 1,113 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 60% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
5,766 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $231K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,233 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,279 | +3.7% | |
| 2023 | 1,125 | -12.0% | |
| 2024 | 1,016 | -9.7% | |
| 2025 | 1,113 | +9.5% |
For the 22 building fires Quincy departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 952 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 | Other | 199 | 20.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 174 | 18.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 157 | 16.5% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 53 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 48 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 43 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 41 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 34 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 28 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 18 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 157 | 16.5% |
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 Quincy mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 455 | 47.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 228 | 23.9% | |
| 3 | Cigarette | 64 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 49 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 27 | 2.8% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 20 | 2.1% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 20 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Match | 12 | 1.3% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 10 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 10 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 57 | 6.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Quincy sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
111 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 34 | |
| 40-49 | 29 | |
| 50-59 | 34 | |
| 60-69 | 9 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,780 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 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 8.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 120 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 17.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 36.0 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 Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Quincy. 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.