In 2025, fire departments serving Newport responded to 20 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 70% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
124 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $301K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 33 | — | |
| 2022 | 31 | -6.1% | |
| 2023 | 36 | +16.1% | |
| 2024* | 4 | — | |
| 2025 | 20 | — |
* Well below Newport'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 1 building fires Newport departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 21 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 | Other | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 7 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 14.3% |
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 Newport mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cigarette | 4 | 19.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 6 | Candle | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Incendiary device | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 4.8% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Newport sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 10 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 277 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 100 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 50 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 27 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 15 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 41.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 11.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Smoking | 10 | 26.6 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 | 05855 | 124 |
Six Vermont cities with population within ±25% of Newport. 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.