In 2025, fire departments serving Silver Spring responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 87% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
18 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 1 | — | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024* | 0 | — | |
| 2025 | 15 | — |
* Well below Silver Spring'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 0 building fires Silver Spring departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3 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 | Sales area, showroom (exclude display window) | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 33.3% |
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 Silver Spring mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arcing | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 33.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Silver Spring sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,562 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 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 424 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 109 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 21.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 74 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 72 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 70 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 70 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 59 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 55 | 17.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 54 | 42.6 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 Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Silver Spring. 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.