In 2025, fire departments serving Somerville responded to 1,392 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $8K 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 65% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
6,747 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $3.6M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,332 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,258 | -5.6% | |
| 2023 | 1,401 | +11.4% | |
| 2024 | 1,364 | -2.6% | |
| 2025 | 1,392 | +2.1% |
For the 70 building fires Somerville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 699 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 | 307 | 43.9% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 56 | 8.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 43 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 30 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Exterior, exposed surface | 28 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 25 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 19 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 17 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 14 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 11 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 149 | 21.3% |
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 Somerville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 288 | 41.2% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 154 | 22.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 52 | 7.4% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 38 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 36 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 29 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Sunlight | 11 | 1.6% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 8 | 1.1% | |
| 9 | Candle | 8 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 7 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 68 | 9.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Somerville departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Somerville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
111 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 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 37 | |
| 40-49 | 40 | |
| 50-59 | 18 | |
| 60-69 | 9 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,685 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 8.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 16.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 11.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 28.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 36.4 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 Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Somerville. 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.