In 2025, fire departments serving Lincoln responded to 64 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $80K building blaze. 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 67% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
275 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $187K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 10 | — | |
| 2022* | 4 | — | |
| 2023 | 93 | — | |
| 2024 | 104 | +11.8% | |
| 2025 | 64 | -38.5% |
* Well below Lincoln'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 Lincoln departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 31 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 | 8 | 25.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 9.7% | |
| 3 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 9.7% | |
| 4 | Equipment or service area, other | 3 | 9.7% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 3 | 9.7% | |
| 6 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 8 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 4 | 12.9% |
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 Lincoln mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 19.4% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 16.1% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 16.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 4 | 12.9% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 4 | 12.9% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 7 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 3.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lincoln departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $80,000 | Rail vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $18,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $400 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lincoln sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,804 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Smoking | 236 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 161 | 46.0 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 125 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 120 | 49.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 105 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 97 | 22.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 93 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 82 | 23.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 75 | 7.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 70 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 67 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 61 | 35.9 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 Lincoln. 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.