In 2025, fire departments serving Dighton responded to 36 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
124 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $102K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 7 | — | |
| 2022 | 39 | — | |
| 2023 | 23 | -41.0% | |
| 2024 | 19 | -17.4% | |
| 2025 | 36 | +89.5% |
* Well below Dighton'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 3 building fires Dighton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 23 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 | 6 | 26.1% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Outside area, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 13.0% |
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 Dighton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 34.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Incendiary device | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 13.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dighton departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $400 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dighton sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,241 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 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 120 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 12.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Smoking | 50 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 42 | 46.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 40 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 35 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 32 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 30 | 48.7 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 | 02715 | 124 |
Six Massachusetts cities with population within ±25% of Dighton. 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.