In 2025, fire departments serving Webster responded to 137 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
864 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $1.9M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 212 | — | |
| 2022 | 158 | -25.5% | |
| 2023 | 152 | -3.8% | |
| 2024 | 205 | +34.9% | |
| 2025 | 137 | -33.2% |
For the 16 building fires Webster departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 170 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 | 31 | 18.2% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 24 | 14.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 17 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 9 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 8 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 8 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Other | 7 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 7 | 4.1% | |
| 9 | Exterior, exposed surface | 5 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 4 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 50 | 29.4% |
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 Webster mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 57 | 33.5% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 21 | 12.4% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 16 | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 16 | 9.4% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 14 | 8.2% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 11 | 6.5% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 10 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 4 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 14 | 8.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Webster departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $12,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $3,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $2,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,200 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Webster sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,418 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 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 32.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 361 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 32.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 39.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | 94 | 27.6 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 | 01570 | 864 |
Six Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Webster. 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.