Vermont Fire Map: Track Vermont Wildfires Live in 2026

A Vermont fire map tracks a small number of mostly human-caused fires spread across three short seasonal windows, with a fall burning period that turned unusually severe in 2024. The Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation recorded 84 wildland fires statewide in 2025, most of them well under an acre.

What does a Vermont fire map show right now?

A Vermont fire map fuses official NIFC incident records and WFIGS perimeters, NASA VIIRS and MODIS satellite heat, NOAA GOES detections and National Weather Service fire-weather alerts into one view. US Wildfire Tracker shows all four free in any browser, refreshing automatically every few minutes.

Vermont's wildfire count is genuinely small by national standards. The state's Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation (FPR) recorded 84 wildland fires in 2025, most of them tiny and human-caused, handled by town fire departments before they spread beyond a fraction of an acre.

That scale changes what a live map is for here. You are rarely watching a fire approach a town; you are usually confirming whether a smoke column is a legal backyard burn under a valid permit or something that got away from someone, and checking the fire danger rating before you consider burning yourself.

When is Vermont's wildfire season?

Vermont's wildland fire program recognizes three seasonal windows, each with a different character, according to the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. The primary season runs from late March to early June, when southern and lower-elevation areas dry out first and spring fires burn fast across surface litter.

A quieter summer window follows from mid-August into September, when fires depend on rainfall and tend to spread slowly except in dry softwood stands. The fall window, late September through mid-to-late November, is normally the shortest of the three because overnight moisture and shorter daylight limit drying — except in a year like 2024.

That spring-heavy pattern echoes the debris-burning seasons described in our North Carolina fire map guide, though Vermont's total acreage is far smaller and its fires almost never grow beyond a few dozen acres.

Which agencies fight fires in Vermont?

The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation (FPR), within the Agency of Natural Resources, sets statewide fire policy, monitors fire danger and coordinates with a decentralized network of Town Forest Fire Wardens that Vermont created in 1904, one town at a time, under Title 10 V.S.A. Chapter 83.

Wardens issue local burn permits and lead initial attack; when a fire exceeds a town's capacity, wardens can request state assistance directly from FPR. Larger incidents draw on the NIFC Eastern Area Coordination Center for interagency crews and aircraft, while the National Weather Service office in Burlington (BTV) issues fire-weather forecasts and Red Flag Warnings in coordination with FPR.

Where do Vermont wildfires usually burn?

Debris burning is consistently the state's leading determined cause, FPR Commissioner Danielle Fitzko has said, which means most Vermont wildfires start in the same places people burn brush and yard waste: backyards, field edges and the wildland-urban interface rather than deep backcountry.

When fires do reach forested terrain, geography matters. Southern and lower-elevation areas dry out earliest in spring, while remote softwood stands in summer can carry fire underground into duff and take longer and cost more to control, according to FPR's own description of seasonal fire behavior.

A single 2025 incident illustrates the range: an 11-acre wildfire near Fair Haven burned for weeks in July 2025, the largest July fire in the state since 1988 — unusual mainly because Vermont's summer fires are typically both smaller and quicker to control than that.

What are the largest wildfires in Vermont history?

Vermont does not publish an annually ranked list of its largest individual wildfires. The clearest historical benchmark comes from the early 1900s, when statewide fire seasons — not single named fires — did the most damage on record.

The 1903 and 1908 seasons directly reshaped state government: Vermont appointed its first Commissioner of Forestry in 1904 and built the Town Forest Fire Warden system in response, and the 1908 season prompted construction of the state's first fire tower, on Burke Mountain. No modern Vermont wildfire has approached those totals; fall 2024, described by the state as a record fall season, still burned only 159 acres for the full year.

Why was fall 2024 an unusual wildfire season in Vermont?

Vermont's fall 2024 fire season was the state's most damaging since 2016, with 82 wildfires burning 159 acres for the year, more than half of them — over 41 fires — occurring in October and November alone, well outside Vermont's normally short fall window.

The Morgan Hill Road fire in Barnard on October 27, 2024 burned about 70 acres, a scale the town's own fire warden had not seen in decades. Little rainfall, dry foliage and wind combined to keep fire danger elevated long after Vermont's fall season would typically have ended with rain or early snow.

2025 brought a drier echo without matching 2024's fall surge: by August 11, 2025 much of the state sat at "very high" fire danger, though FPR had issued only three such warnings that year to date, compared with 13 in each of 2024 and 2023 — a reminder that fire danger ratings and total burned acreage do not always move together.

What weather drives Vermont fire danger?

The National Weather Service office in Burlington issues Vermont's Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches jointly with the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, using criteria that vary by season and by how cured the local vegetation is, tracked as Stage I (75 percent or more dead), Stage II (25–75 percent dead) or Stage III (less than 25 percent dead), alongside the Keetch-Byram Drought Index.

A Fire Weather Watch signals a 12- to 48-hour lead time on dangerous conditions, usually in the Very High to Extreme fire danger category; a Red Flag Warning means those conditions are expected within 24 hours. Both require coordination between NWS Burlington and FPR before issuance, since the warning also depends on how dry the fuels are on the ground, not weather alone.

How do burn permits work in Vermont?

Under Title 10 V.S.A. §2645, anyone who wants to kindle an open-air fire to burn natural wood, brush, weeds or grass must get permission from their town's Forest Fire Warden or a deputy first; once granted, the warden must issue a written "Permit to Kindle" within 12 hours.

Some fires are exempt: those on ground fully covered by snow, fires in a stone arch or outdoor fireplace well away from woodland, fires at least 200 feet from woodland or dry grass, and fires within cities that maintain their own fire department. Materials altered by paint, stain, preservative, oil, glue or pesticide may never be burned outdoors.

During periods of increased fire hazard, the FPR Commissioner can direct town wardens to stop issuing new permits entirely for a set period, regardless of any exemption that would normally apply — the same mechanism used elsewhere in New England to shut down burning statewide during drought.

How do evacuations work in Vermont?

Vermont has no statewide Ready-Set-Go or numbered evacuation-level system specific to wildfire. Because the state's fires are small and quickly contained, evacuation guidance during any incident comes from local public safety officials and Vermont Emergency Management (VEM) through the standard Emergency Alert System rather than a wildfire-specific protocol.

If officials tell you to evacuate near an active fire, VEM's general guidance is to follow instructions immediately rather than wait to confirm the danger yourself. Local fire departments and the town Forest Fire Warden remain the authoritative source for road closures and containment status during an active incident.

Because Vermont fires so rarely threaten populated areas, the more common real-world decision residents face is whether conditions are too dry to burn legally at all — which is exactly what the burn permit and fire danger rating system is designed to answer.

How do you track Vermont fires in under a minute?

Because Vermont fires are small and infrequent, the goal of a quick map check is mostly reassurance and context — confirming a heat signal is a permitted burn or an already-contained small fire, not tracking a fast-moving front.

1. Open the live fire map and filter to Vermont, or use "fires near me" to see incidents within a set distance in miles.
2. Check the probability tier first. A low tier with no linked NIFC record is often a permitted backyard burn already reported to the town warden.
3. Compare "Last NIFC update," "Last satellite heat" and "Last GOES heat" to judge how current a detection actually is.
4. Check the current fire danger rating and any active Red Flag Warning before planning any burning of your own.
5. Note the season and location — a fall detection after a dry stretch, as in 2024, deserves more attention than a routine spring backyard burn.
6. For any evacuation guidance, follow your town fire warden or Vermont Emergency Management channel, and use the app's directions-away links if you need to leave.

Our fire tracker guide explains how each data layer's latency works, and the current wildfires guide covers how to read a national view alongside a low-acreage state like Vermont's.

What does wildfire smoke do to Vermont air quality?

Vermont's own wildfires rarely burn enough acreage to affect air quality broadly, but the state sits directly downwind of much larger fires in Quebec and Ontario, whose smoke can push conditions from good to unhealthy within hours even when nothing is burning in Vermont at all.

On the EPA's Air Quality Index, a reading of 101 to 150 means sensitive groups — including people with asthma, heart or lung disease, children and older adults — may experience health effects, while 151 to 200 means some of the general public may be affected too. In Vermont, checking a smoke or air-quality overlay is often more relevant than checking for a nearby fire.

Our forest fire smoke tracker guide explains how to read smoke plume forecasts alongside a live fire map, which matters in Vermont because most bad-air days here trace back to fires burning well outside the state.

Frequently asked questions about the Vermont fire map