In 2025, fire departments serving Temple responded to 63 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.
May peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
324 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 65 | — | |
| 2022 | 74 | +13.8% | |
| 2023* | 27 | — | |
| 2024 | 95 | — | |
| 2025 | 63 | -33.7% |
* Well below Temple'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 10 building fires Temple departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 76 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 | 17 | 22.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 11 | 14.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 10.5% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 7.9% | |
| 5 | Other | 5 | 6.6% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 4 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 3 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 15 | 19.7% |
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 Temple mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 47 | 61.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 9 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 3 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 1 | 1.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 1.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Temple departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $4,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $4,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Temple sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,601 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 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 848 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 741 | 15.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 336 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 328 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 308 | 37.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 282 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 263 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 258 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 257 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 250 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 250 | 34.2 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 | 19560 | 324 |
Six Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Temple. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Temple.
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.