In 2025, fire departments serving Howland responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Forest, woods or wildland fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 71% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
95 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $110K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 8 | — | |
| 2022 | 16 | — | |
| 2023 | 29 | +81.2% | |
| 2024 | 25 | -13.8% | |
| 2025 | 17 | -32.0% |
* Well below Howland'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 Howland departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 12 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 | 6 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 1 | 8.3% |
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 Howland mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 41.7% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 8.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Howland sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,319 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 161 | 49.0 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 105 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 97 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 82 | 36.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 75 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 67 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 61 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 60 | 27.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Other causes | 50 | 14.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Other causes | 45 | 42.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 42 | 31.0 mi |
Top 2 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 Howland. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Howland.
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.