In 2025, fire departments serving Rye responded to 83 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 49% of all calls.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
388 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $512K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 45 | — | |
| 2022 | 91 | — | |
| 2023 | 58 | -36.3% | |
| 2024 | 111 | +91.4% | |
| 2025 | 83 | -25.2% |
* Well below Rye'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 4 building fires Rye departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 81 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 | 13 | 16.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 9.9% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 7 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Equipment or service area, other | 7 | 8.6% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 5 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 9 | Other | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 23 | 28.4% |
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 Rye mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 21 | 25.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 13 | 16.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 12 | 14.8% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 5 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Match | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 2 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 13 | 16.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Rye sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 3 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,541 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 314 | 26.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 236 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 92 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 59 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Smoking | 50 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 42 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 41 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 26.0 mi |
Top 9 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six New Hampshire cities with population within ±25% of Rye. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Rye.
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.