ZIP 19601 recorded 313 fire and hazmat incidents in 2025, 2,332 across 2021–2025. Primary county: Berks County, PA.
2,332 incidents from 2021 through 2025 inside this ZIP.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 519 | |
| 2022 | 561 | |
| 2023 | 505 | |
| 2024 | 434 | |
| 2025 | 313 |
Apr peaks. Feb dips. Aggregated across all 5 years inside this ZIP.
Top 5 NFIRS incident types for ZIP 19601 across 2021–2025.
| # | Incident type | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cooking fire, confined to container | 390 | 16.7% | |
| 2 | Building fires | 300 | 12.9% | |
| 3 | Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) | 192 | 8.2% | |
| 4 | Carbon monoxide incident | 161 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other | 136 | 5.8% |
For the 31 building fires reported here in 2025, here's how investigators classified ignition cause.
NFIRS Area of Origin for ZIP 19601 fires across 2021–2025.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cooking area, kitchen | 425 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 114 | 11.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 68 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 36 | 3.6% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 36 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 23 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 21 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 19 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | All other areas | 249 | 25.1% |
NFIRS HEAT_SOURC code — the physical thing that started the fire.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 425 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 288 | 29.1% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 70 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 27 | 2.7% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 25 | 2.5% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 24 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 22 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 16 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | All other sources | 94 | 9.5% |
Largest single-incident losses in ZIP 19601 across 2021–2025. These 8 fires alone account for 166% of the ZIP's 2025 reported total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Year | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Building fires | 2025 | Major |
| 2 | $120,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | 2024 | Significant |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | 2022 | Significant |
| 4 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | 2022 | Significant |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | 2023 | Significant |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | 2025 | Significant |
| 7 | $95,000 | Building fires | 2024 | Significant |
| 8 | $50,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | 2022 | Significant |
Some ZIPs span multiple cities. Ranked by 5-yr NFIRS incidents inside ZIP 19601.
| # | City | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reading | 2,285 | |
| 2 | Bern | 17 | |
| 3 | Marcus Hook | 2 | |
| 4 | Reading | 2 | |
| 5 | Mertztown | 1 |
The figures above are historical. For today's air quality, fire-weather warnings, and active fires, go to the official sources.
NFIRS reports each fire incident with a 5-digit address ZIP. We aggregate those rows directly to produce ZIP-level totals — 2,332 incidents in this ZIP across 2021–2025. Building-fire breakdowns (Area of Origin, Heat Source, ignition cause) only count fires investigators classified beyond the basic incident report. Because NFIRS reporting is voluntary, totals are a strong indicator rather than a complete census.