In 2025, fire departments serving Mount Desert responded to 16 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Feb peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
85 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 20 | — | |
| 2022 | 17 | -15.0% | |
| 2023 | 23 | +35.3% | |
| 2024* | 9 | — | |
| 2025 | 16 | — |
* Well below Mount Desert'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 Mount Desert 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 2 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Structural area, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 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 Mount Desert mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 7.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mount Desert sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,939 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 | 41.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 657 | 35.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 515 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 495 | 34.8 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 39.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 215 | 35.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 205 | 20.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 200 | 36.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 177 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 161 | 37.4 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 156 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 124 | 16.4 mi |
Top 4 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 Mount Desert. 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.