In 2025, fire departments serving North Kingstown responded to 122 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 70% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
769 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 192 | — | |
| 2022 | 212 | +10.4% | |
| 2023 | 223 | +5.2% | |
| 2024* | 20 | — | |
| 2025 | 122 | — |
* Well below North Kingstown'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 North Kingstown departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2 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 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 1 | 50.0% |
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 North Kingstown mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2 | 100.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. North Kingstown sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 947 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Natural | 120 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | 94 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 55 | 35.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 50 | 42.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Recreation and ceremony | 50 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 42 | 34.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 40 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 35 | 21.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 30 | 33.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 48.4 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 Rhode Island cities with population within ±25% of North Kingstown. 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.