In 2025, fire departments serving Worcester responded to 1,622 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $650K 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 56% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
10,611 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $38.2M cumulative property loss. 14 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,248 | — | |
| 2022 | 2,262 | +0.6% | |
| 2023 | 2,187 | -3.3% | |
| 2024 | 2,292 | +4.8% | |
| 2025 | 1,622 | -29.2% |
For the 72 building fires Worcester departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,695 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 | 295 | 17.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 173 | 10.2% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 148 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 130 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 92 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 81 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 69 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 54 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 51 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 46 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 556 | 32.8% |
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 Worcester mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 713 | 42.1% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 140 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 136 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 128 | 7.6% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 110 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 98 | 5.8% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 89 | 5.3% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 51 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Arcing | 50 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 26 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 154 | 9.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Worcester departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 55% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $650,300 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $580,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $507,225 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $270,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $214,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $170,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $166,400 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $166,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Worcester sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
129 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 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 55 | |
| 40-49 | 31 | |
| 50-59 | 26 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 3 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,115 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 | 17.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 17.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 17.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 17.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 18.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 17.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | 94 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 46.8 mi |
Top 10 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 Worcester. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Worcester.
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.