In 2025, fire departments serving Bar Harbor responded to 57 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 47% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
143 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $540K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 27 | — | |
| 2023* | 4 | — | |
| 2024 | 50 | — | |
| 2025 | 57 | +14.0% |
* Well below Bar Harbor'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 7 building fires Bar Harbor departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 15 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 2 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 4 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 6 | Dining room, cafeteria bar area, beverage service | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 9 | Outside area, other | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 10 | Undetermined | 1 | 6.7% |
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 Bar Harbor mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 7 | 46.7% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 8 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 6.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bar Harbor departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,246 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bar Harbor sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,930 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 770 | 37.6 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 657 | 32.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 515 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 495 | 31.1 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 35.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 215 | 31.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 205 | 16.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 200 | 32.0 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 177 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 161 | 33.1 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 156 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 124 | 12.1 mi |
Top 5 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 Bar Harbor. 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.