In 2025, fire departments serving Dartmouth responded to 136 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.2M 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 52% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
476 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $3.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 57 | — | |
| 2022 | 68 | — | |
| 2023 | 81 | +19.1% | |
| 2024 | 134 | +65.4% | |
| 2025 | 136 | +1.5% |
* Well below Dartmouth'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 11 building fires Dartmouth departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 117 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 22 | 18.8% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 18 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 14 | 12.0% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 10 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 8 | 6.8% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 8 | 6.8% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 8 | 6.8% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 6 | 5.1% | |
| 9 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 17 | 14.5% |
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 Dartmouth mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 60 | 51.3% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 11 | 9.4% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 8 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Chemical reaction | 5 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 4 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Sunlight | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 6 | 5.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dartmouth departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,200,000 | Aircraft fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $172,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $27,373 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $7,100 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dartmouth sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 913 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 120 | 25.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 35 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 29 | 25.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 26 | 42.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 | 38.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 25 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 21 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 20 | 37.4 mi |
Top 6 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Dartmouth. 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.