In 2025, fire departments serving West Lawn responded to 56 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Hazardous condition, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
76 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $50K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 6 | — | |
| 2022* | 3 | — | |
| 2023* | 6 | — | |
| 2024* | 5 | — | |
| 2025 | 56 | — |
* Well below West Lawn'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 West Lawn departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 8 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 | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Storage area, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 1 | 12.5% |
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 West Lawn mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arcing | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Chemical reaction | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 12.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by West Lawn departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. West Lawn sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,446 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 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 848 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 741 | 14.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 470 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 328 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 308 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 282 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 263 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 258 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 250 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 250 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | 193 | 33.1 mi |
Top 2 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 West Lawn. 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.