In 2025, fire departments serving Wilbraham responded to 120 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.4M 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 54% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
685 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $3.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 148 | — | |
| 2022 | 117 | -20.9% | |
| 2023 | 141 | +20.5% | |
| 2024 | 159 | +12.8% | |
| 2025 | 120 | -24.5% |
For the 19 building fires Wilbraham departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 189 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 | 39 | 20.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 22 | 11.6% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 22 | 11.6% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 14 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 12 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 9 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 7 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Other | 6 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 6 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 47 | 24.9% |
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 Wilbraham mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 36 | 19.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 28 | 14.8% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 25 | 13.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 23 | 12.2% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 17 | 9.0% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 14 | 7.4% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 9 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 8 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 4 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 20 | 10.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wilbraham departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,400,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wilbraham sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
9 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 | 5 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,295 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,300 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 47.8 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 361 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 321 | 20.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 13.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 47.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 180 | 45.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 180 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 36.9 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 | 01095 | 685 |
Six Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Wilbraham. 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.