In 2025, fire departments serving Winthrop responded to 128 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 66% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
657 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 135 | — | |
| 2022 | 147 | +8.9% | |
| 2023 | 126 | -14.3% | |
| 2024 | 121 | -4.0% | |
| 2025 | 128 | +5.8% |
For the 8 building fires Winthrop departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 347 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 | 169 | 48.7% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 55 | 15.9% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 35 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 8 | 2.3% | |
| 5 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 8 | 2.3% | |
| 6 | Other | 6 | 1.7% | |
| 7 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 6 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 5 | 1.4% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 5 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 45 | 13.0% |
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 Winthrop mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 122 | 35.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 107 | 30.8% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 26 | 7.5% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 16 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 14 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 13 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 10 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 8 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Match | 8 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 18 | 5.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Winthrop departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $500 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $200 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Winthrop sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
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 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 11.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 16.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 8.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 34.4 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 Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Winthrop. 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.