In 2025, fire departments serving Millinocket responded to 57 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning 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.
211 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.8M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 5 | — | |
| 2023 | 63 | — | |
| 2024 | 84 | +33.3% | |
| 2025 | 57 | -32.1% |
* Well below Millinocket'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 5 building fires Millinocket 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 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 5 | 16.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 5 | 16.1% | |
| 3 | Equipment or service area, other | 4 | 12.9% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 9.7% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Corridor, mall | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 7 | 22.6% |
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 Millinocket mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 14 | 45.2% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 6 | 19.4% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 12.9% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 12.9% | |
| 5 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 3.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Millinocket departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Millinocket sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,255 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Smoking | 856 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Smoking | 236 | 33.2 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 125 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 97 | 26.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 93 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 82 | 27.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 75 | 17.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 67 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 61 | 36.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 60 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Other causes | 50 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Other causes | 45 | 18.7 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 | 04462 | 211 |
Six Maine cities with population within ±25% of Millinocket. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Millinocket.
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.