In 2025, fire departments serving Woonsocket responded to 386 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K 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 50% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,440 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $6.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 573 | — | |
| 2022 | 479 | -16.4% | |
| 2023 | 531 | +10.9% | |
| 2024 | 471 | -11.3% | |
| 2025 | 386 | -18.0% |
For the 35 building fires Woonsocket departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 829 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 | 296 | 35.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 133 | 16.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 44 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 33 | 4.0% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 33 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 32 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 29 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 21 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 17 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 16 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 175 | 21.1% |
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 Woonsocket mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 324 | 39.1% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 180 | 21.7% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 92 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 34 | 4.1% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 29 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 26 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 22 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 21 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 19 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 17 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 65 | 7.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Woonsocket departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 86% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $80,000 | Structure fire, other (conversion only) | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Woonsocket sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
17 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,779 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 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 25.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | 94 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 33.4 mi |
Top 6 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Rhode Island cities with population within ±25% of Woonsocket. 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.