In 2025, fire departments serving Reading responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 88% of all calls.
Jul peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
82 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $414K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022* | 9 | — | |
| 2023 | 28 | — | |
| 2024 | 23 | -17.9% | |
| 2025 | 17 | -26.1% |
* Well below Reading'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 1 building fires Reading departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 17 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 | Undetermined | 6 | 35.3% | |
| 2 | Other | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Vacant structural area | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Structural area, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 9 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 10 | Outside area, other | 1 | 5.9% |
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 Reading mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 12 | 70.6% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 17.6% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 1 | 5.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Reading sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 993 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 154 | 15.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 105 | 36.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 98 | 42.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 27.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Fireworks | 40 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 40 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 40 | 41.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 36 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 35 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 30 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 25 | 6.0 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Michigan cities with population within ±25% of Reading. 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.