In 2025, fire departments serving Shaftsbury responded to 51 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 75% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
197 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 64 | — | |
| 2022 | 61 | -4.7% | |
| 2023* | 4 | — | |
| 2024* | 17 | — | |
| 2025 | 51 | — |
* Well below Shaftsbury'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 Shaftsbury departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 12 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 7 | Wall assembly | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 8 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 8.3% |
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 Shaftsbury mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 7 | 58.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 8.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Shaftsbury sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,083 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 272 | 18.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 270 | 28.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Recreation and ceremony | 173 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 30.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 28.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 83 | 22.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 75 | 9.8 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 73 | 38.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 65 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 62 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 43.9 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Vermont cities with population within ±25% of Shaftsbury. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Shaftsbury.
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.