In 2025, fire departments serving Yarmouth responded to 20 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K 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 65% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
52 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $306K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 7 | — | |
| 2023 | 10 | +42.9% | |
| 2024 | 10 | +0.0% | |
| 2025 | 20 | +100.0% |
* Well below Yarmouth'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 6 building fires Yarmouth departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6 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 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 2 | Maintenance shop or area, paint shop or area | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 5 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 16.7% |
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 Yarmouth mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 83.3% | |
| 2 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 16.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Yarmouth departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $6,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Yarmouth sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 13 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 336 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Natural | 120 | 15.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 29 | 16.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 20 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 15 | 12.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 15 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 15 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 13 | 18.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 13 | 12.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 11 | 6.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2004 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10 | 18.6 mi |
Top 3 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 Yarmouth. 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.