In 2025, fire departments serving Hallowell responded to 35 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 74% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
143 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $250K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 44 | — | |
| 2022* | 5 | — | |
| 2023 | 42 | — | |
| 2024* | 17 | — | |
| 2025 | 35 | — |
* Well below Hallowell'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 4 building fires Hallowell departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | 5 | 38.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 7.7% |
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 Hallowell mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 46.2% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 7.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hallowell sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 778 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 77 | 40.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 64 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 57 | 8.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 48 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 20.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 | 36.9 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 39 | 22.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 35 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 33 | 24.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 32 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 31 | 33.2 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 | 04347 | 54 |
Six Maine cities with population within ±25% of Hallowell. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Hallowell.
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.