In 2025, fire departments serving Reading responded to 1,002 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $300K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 48% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
6,167 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $7.5M cumulative property loss. 12 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,330 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,388 | +4.4% | |
| 2023 | 1,259 | -9.3% | |
| 2024 | 1,188 | -5.6% | |
| 2025 | 1,002 | -15.7% |
For the 81 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 2,058 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 | 676 | 32.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 271 | 13.2% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 154 | 7.5% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 78 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 66 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 66 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 59 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 57 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 55 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 40 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 536 | 26.0% |
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 Reading mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 688 | 33.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 673 | 32.7% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 143 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 70 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 67 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 65 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 57 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 51 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 33 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 31 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 180 | 8.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Reading departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 71% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Building or structure weakened or collapsed | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $60,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Reading sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
123 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 | 12 | |
| 10-19 | 16 | |
| 20-29 | 21 | |
| 30-39 | 20 | |
| 40-49 | 22 | |
| 50-59 | 16 | |
| 60-69 | 10 | |
| 70-79 | 4 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,647 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 | 39.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 848 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 741 | 12.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 470 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 328 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 308 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 282 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 263 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 258 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 257 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 250 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 250 | 38.2 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.
Six Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Reading. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Reading.
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.