In 2025, fire departments serving Rockport responded to 57 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Dec peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
96 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $104K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 29 | — | |
| 2022* | 7 | — | |
| 2023* | 1 | — | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 57 | — |
* Well below Rockport'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 3 building fires Rockport 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 | Outside area, other | 4 | 23.5% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Assembly or sales area, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Function area, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Wall assembly | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 9 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 11.8% |
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 Rockport mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 23.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Match | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 10 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 5.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Rockport departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,500 | Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $500 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100 | Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Rockport sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,106 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 20.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 19.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54 | 16.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Smoking | 50 | 22.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 32 | 21.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 27 | 18.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 26 | 38.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 25 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 25 | 30.1 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 01966 | 96 |
Six Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Rockport. 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.