VERMONT – Wildfires are supposed to be less common in the summer, when the state is usually lush and green, but they appear to be popping up more frequently, the state forest fire supervisor said.
Most of the state was under a “very high” fire risk warning as of Monday due to dry conditions, according to Vermont Emergency Management.
Only the central portion of the southern end of the state, including eastern Rutland and Bennington counties, and western Windsor and Windham counties, were under a lower-level “high” risk, the department wrote in a Facebook post. It warned Vermonters to avoid open burning, exercise caution with outdoor grills, campfires and machinery, and properly extinguish cigarettes.
Megan Davin, a spokesperson for the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, said three “very high” fire warnings had been issued so far in 2025. Meanwhile, there were 13 overall in 2024 and 13 in 2023.
Dan Dillner, the state forest fire supervisor, said the current conditions were abnormal compared to the past 20 years. “I don’t know what normal is anymore,” he said.
In July, the state spent weeks fighting an 11-acre wildfire in Fair Haven. The last time a wildfire of that size had broken out in July was in 1988.
He urged Vermonters to follow safe fire practices. Along with avoiding open burns, anyone lighting a grill or campfire should keep it away from vegetation, monitor the embers and make sure it’s always attended. People also should be careful with cigarettes and other small burning items.
“When you get to ‘very high’ fire danger, even flicking a cigarette into brush can cause a fire,” he said.
Forty-five wildfires have been reported in Vermont so far this year, totaling 46 acres of damage. One was attributed to a lightning strike. The rest are human-caused.
“We in the Northeast need to remember our Smokey the Bear,” the famous mascot for fire safety, Dilner said.
The alert came as the state entered a new phase of hotter temperatures in an already hotter-than-average summer. The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for Chittenden, Franklin, Grand Isle and western Addison counties for Monday and Tuesday. Burlington is expected to reach temperatures in the mid-90s on both days, the weather service said.
The Vermont Department of Health maintains a list of cooling centers across the state and tips on staying safe in the heat on its website.
Recent days have also seen less rain than expected for this time of year. Burlington has received 6 inches of rain in total since June 1, the start of meteorological summer. By contrast, the average rainfall during that time between 1990 and 2020 was over 9 inches.
Roughly three-quarters of Vermont has been reported to have “abnormally dry” conditions by the U.S. Drought Monitor, a research project from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
