In 2025, fire departments across Rhode Island responded to 6,509 fire and hazmat incidents .
Rhode Island has no NIFC perimeters on record — most fires here stay below the federal mapping threshold. Hover any state to compare; click to drill in.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories cover roughly 52% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. (Latest year: 2025.)
5-year cumulative seasonality smooths out single-year noise. Jul peaks across the window; Sep dips.
34,762 incidents from 2021 through 2025 across all reporting departments.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 7,923 | |
| 2022 | 7,966 | |
| 2023 | 6,680 | |
| 2024 | 5,684 | |
| 2025 | 6,509 |
For the 571 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Combined NFIRS + FPA-FOD totals across the available reporting window. Click a cause to see how it plays out nationwide.
| # | Cause | Incidents | FOD vs NFIRS | Acres | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined / missing | 2,949 | 237 / 2,712 | 266 | |
| 2 | Arson / incendiarism | 794 | 244 / 550 | 302 | |
| 3 | Equipment & vehicle use | 563 | 21 / 542 | 20 | |
| 4 | Natural (lightning) | 170 | 2 / 168 | 0 | |
| 5 | Debris & open burning | 147 | 147 / 0 | 83 | |
| 6 | Recreation & ceremony | 66 | 66 / 0 | 64 | |
| 7 | Other causes | 36 | 6 / 30 | 4 | |
| 8 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 25 | 25 / 0 | 20 | |
| 9 | Smoking | 21 | 21 / 0 | 5 | |
| 10 | Power generation / utility | 12 | 12 / 0 | 6 | |
| 11 | Fireworks | 5 | 5 / 0 | 3 | |
| 12 | Railroad operations | 1 | 1 / 0 | 1 |
Topical groupings of NFIRS incident types — building, cooking, electrical, vehicle, and more. Each links to its national rollup.
| # | Topic | Incidents | Loss | Deaths | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gas leaks | 9,234 | $6K | 0 | |
| 2 | Building fires | 8,520 | $62.7M | 5 | |
| 3 | Outdoor fires | 5,615 | $145K | 0 | |
| 4 | Electrical / wiring | 4,977 | $124K | 0 | |
| 5 | Cooking-related | 4,670 | $110K | 0 | |
| 6 | Wildland fires | 2,644 | $60K | 0 | |
| 7 | Vehicle fires | 1,355 | $20.6M | 3 | |
| 8 | Rubbish / refuse | 1,300 | $207K | 0 | |
| 9 | Arson | 579 | $2.6M | 0 |
Largest single-incident property losses statewide in 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 37% of Rhode Island's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Pawtucket | Building fires | Major |
| 2 | $999,999 | Pawtucket | Building fires | Major |
| 3 | $700,000 | NEWPORT | Building fires | Major |
| 4 | $500,000 | NEWPORT | Building fires | Major |
| 5 | $500,000 | NEWPORT | Water vehicle fire | Major |
| 6 | $500,000 | Pawtucket | Building fires | Major |
| 7 | $400,000 | Barrington | Building fires | Major |
| 8 | $400,000 | BURRILLVILLE | Building fires | Major |
| 9 | $357,900 | EAST PROVIDENCE | Building fires | Major |
| 10 | $350,000 | CUMBERLAND | Building fires | Major |
Per-capita rates let us compare Rhode Island apples-to-apples to the national average.
12 largest reporting cities by population.
Top 5 counties by reported NFIRS incidents in 2025.
| # | County | Incidents | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Providence County | 3,609 | 697,383 |
| 2 | Washington County | 680 | 147,570 |
| 3 | Newport County | 392 | 99,004 |
| 4 | Kent County | 86 | 171,238 |
| 5 | Bristol County | 0 | 50,658 |
Top 4 counties by NFIRS incidents per 1,000 residents (population ≥ 50,000). Surfaces signal beyond the mega-counties.
| # | County | Inc / 1k | Incidents | Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Providence County | 5.18 | 3,609 | 697,383 | |
| 2 | Washington County | 4.61 | 680 | 147,570 | |
| 3 | Newport County | 3.96 | 392 | 99,004 | |
| 4 | Kent County | 0.50 | 86 | 171,238 |
By incident count in 2025.
FPA-FOD ignitions by decade, broken down by cause category. Each row sums to the decade's total; the bars show the share each cause contributed.
| Decade | Total fires | Share by cause |
|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 1 | |
| 2000s | 246 | |
| 2010s | 428 | |
| 2020s | 112 |
FPA-FOD ignitions by month, all years on record. Distinct from NFIRS — captures unreported wildlands across rural and remote terrain. 787 ignitions total.
403 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 5-year window. Age and gender are coarse-binned for privacy.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 16 | |
| 10-19 | 9 | |
| 20-29 | 69 | |
| 30-39 | 104 | |
| 40-49 | 87 | |
| 50-59 | 60 | |
| 60-69 | 23 | |
| 70-79 | 13 | |
| 80+ | 6 |
State totals reflect incidents reported by fire departments to NFIRS for 2025. The 5-year totals span 2021 through 2025. Wildfire perimeters and decade-by-decade counts are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History service. NFIRS reporting is voluntary, so totals are a strong indicator rather than a complete census.