In 2025, fire departments serving Kensington responded to 20 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 70% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
80 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $196K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 15 | — | |
| 2022 | 12 | -20.0% | |
| 2023* | 9 | — | |
| 2024 | 24 | — | |
| 2025 | 20 | -16.7% |
* Well below Kensington'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 Kensington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 18 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 | 5 | 27.8% | |
| 2 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 4 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Other | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Corridor, mall | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 1 | 5.6% |
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 Kensington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 27.8% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Match | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 5.6% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kensington sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,089 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 314 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 256 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 186 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 172 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 92 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 79 | 46.2 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 New Hampshire cities with population within ±25% of Kensington. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Kensington.
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.