In 2025, fire departments serving Thetford responded to 14 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 93% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
37 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $35K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 11 | — | |
| 2022 | 5 | -54.5% | |
| 2023* | 3 | — | |
| 2024* | 4 | — | |
| 2025 | 14 | — |
* Well below Thetford'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 7 building fires Thetford departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 4 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 | Undetermined | 2 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 25.0% |
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 Thetford mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 50.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Thetford sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,155 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 270 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 137 | 11.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 8.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 92 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 72 | 27.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54 | 20.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 47 | 10.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 35 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 26 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 23 | 48.9 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 Vermont cities with population within ±25% of Thetford. 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.