In 2025, fire departments serving Wayne responded to 114 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. 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 62% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
375 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 47 | — | |
| 2022 | 54 | +14.9% | |
| 2023* | 27 | — | |
| 2024 | 133 | — | |
| 2025 | 114 | -14.3% |
* Well below Wayne'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 7 building fires Wayne departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 47 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 14.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 6 | 12.8% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 6 | 12.8% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 5 | 10.6% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 8.5% | |
| 6 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 12 | 25.5% |
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 Wayne mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 17 | 36.2% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 9 | 19.1% | |
| 3 | Cigarette | 4 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Match | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 6.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wayne departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $500 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wayne sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 35,087 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 47.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,950 | 39.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,900 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,600 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 48.7 mi |
Top 8 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 Wayne. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wayne.
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.