In 2025, fire departments serving Chester responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $130K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 91% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
44 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $466K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 11 | — | |
| 2024 | 19 | +72.7% | |
| 2025 | 11 | -42.1% |
* Well below Chester'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 0 building fires Chester departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6 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 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Equipment or service area, other | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Machinery room or area; elevator machinery room | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 16.7% |
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 Chester mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 16.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Chester departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $130,000 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Chester sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,426 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Smoking | 236 | 43.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 125 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 97 | 21.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 93 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 82 | 22.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 75 | 4.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 67 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 61 | 34.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 60 | 13.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Other causes | 50 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Other causes | 45 | 35.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 42 | 38.7 mi |
Top 4 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 Chester. 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.