In 2025, fire departments serving Anson responded to 21 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $8K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Biological hazard, confirmed or suspected lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 95% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
114 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $154K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 30 | — | |
| 2024 | 61 | +103.3% | |
| 2025 | 21 | -65.6% |
* Well below Anson'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 Anson departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | Undetermined | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Anson mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 71.4% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 14.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Anson departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $7,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Anson sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 982 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Equipment and vehicle use | 198 | 47.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 64 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 61 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 57 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 48 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 43 | 19.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 30.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 | 31.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 39 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 33 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 32 | 49.8 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Maine cities with population within ±25% of Anson. 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.