In 2025, fire departments serving Braintree responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 93% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
42 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $2K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 12 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023 | 6 | — | |
| 2024 | 7 | +16.7% | |
| 2025 | 15 | +114.3% |
* Well below Braintree'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 1 building fires Braintree departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2 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 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Wall assembly | 1 | 50.0% |
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 Braintree mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 1 | 50.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Braintree sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,636 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 270 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 137 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 121 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 19.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 82 | 40.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 75 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 72 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 65 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 62 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 31.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 50 | 46.6 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 05060 | 42 |
Six Vermont cities with population within ±25% of Braintree. 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.