In 2025, fire departments serving Dover responded to 29 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 62% of all calls.
Dec peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
100 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 6 | — | |
| 2022* | 6 | — | |
| 2023 | 24 | — | |
| 2024 | 35 | +45.8% | |
| 2025 | 29 | -17.1% |
* Well below Dover'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 Dover 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 26.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Equipment or service area, other | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 6 | Other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Interior stairway or ramp | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 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 Dover mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arcing | 7 | 30.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Lightning | 1 | 4.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dover departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dover sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,157 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 272 | 22.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 270 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 190 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 40.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 83 | 33.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 75 | 26.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 55 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 25.3 mi |
Top 7 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Vermont cities with population within ±25% of Dover. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Dover.
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.