In 2025, fire departments serving Middleton responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 75% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
36 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $50K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022* | 3 | — | |
| 2023 | 15 | — | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 12 | — |
* Well below Middleton'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 Middleton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1 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 | Outside area, other | 1 | 100.0% |
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 Middleton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cigarette | 1 | 100.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Middleton departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Middleton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,981 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 329 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 314 | 21.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 275 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 236 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 139 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 92 | 24.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 59 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 4.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 42 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 41 | 22.4 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 | 03887 | 36 |
Six New Hampshire cities with population within ±25% of Middleton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Middleton.
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.