In 2025, fire departments serving Wakefield responded to 193 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 56% of all calls.
Aug peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,050 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $535K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 193 | — | |
| 2022 | 219 | +13.5% | |
| 2023 | 209 | -4.6% | |
| 2024 | 236 | +12.9% | |
| 2025 | 193 | -18.2% |
For the 6 building fires Wakefield departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 293 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 62 | 21.2% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 62 | 21.2% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 25 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 19 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 19 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 15 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 10 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 9 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Storage area, other | 5 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 5 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 62 | 21.2% |
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 Wakefield mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 68 | 23.2% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 55 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Cigarette | 24 | 8.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 23 | 7.8% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 19 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 19 | 6.5% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 18 | 6.1% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 17 | 5.8% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 7 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 33 | 11.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wakefield sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
14 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 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,655 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 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 16.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 8.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 6.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 43.7 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 | 01880 | 1,050 |
Six Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Wakefield. 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.