In 2025, fire departments serving Machias responded to 23 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $4K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Fuel burner/boiler malfunction, fire confined lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 48% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
86 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $819K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022* | 7 | — | |
| 2023 | 20 | — | |
| 2024 | 35 | +75.0% | |
| 2025 | 23 | -34.3% |
* Well below Machias'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 2 building fires Machias 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 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 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 Machias mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 46.2% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Machias departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $4,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Machias sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,407 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 770 | 9.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 657 | 13.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 515 | 14.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 495 | 14.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 10.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 215 | 18.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 206 | 22.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 205 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 200 | 19.7 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 195 | 32.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 177 | 15.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 161 | 24.5 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 | 04654 | 86 |
Six Maine cities with population within ±25% of Machias. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Machias.
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.