In 2025, fire departments serving Mount Vernon responded to 19 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 68% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
69 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 7 | — | |
| 2022 | 18 | — | |
| 2023 | 13 | -27.8% | |
| 2024 | 12 | -7.7% | |
| 2025 | 19 | +58.3% |
* Well below Mount Vernon'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 0 building fires Mount Vernon 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 | Wildland, woods | 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 Mount Vernon mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 100.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mount Vernon sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 853 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 64 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 57 | 19.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 51 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 48 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 43 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 11.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 | 35.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 39 | 23.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 35 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 33 | 18.8 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 | 04352 | 69 |
Six Maine cities with population within ±25% of Mount Vernon. 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.