In 2025, fire departments serving Ansonia responded to 298 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 73% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,615 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $4.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 342 | — | |
| 2022 | 377 | +10.2% | |
| 2023 | 310 | -17.8% | |
| 2024 | 288 | -7.1% | |
| 2025 | 298 | +3.5% |
For the 28 building fires Ansonia departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 150 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 | 23 | 15.3% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 21 | 14.0% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 17 | 11.3% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 11 | 7.3% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 10 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 8 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 7 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 7 | 4.7% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 6 | 4.0% | |
| 10 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 4 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 36 | 24.0% |
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 Ansonia mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 38 | 25.3% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 28 | 18.7% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 20 | 13.3% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 18 | 12.0% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 7 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 4 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 4 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Candle | 4 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 18 | 12.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ansonia departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 94% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $70,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $45,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ansonia sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
24 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 11 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 14,652 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,050 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,300 | 29.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 992 | 34.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 550 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 49.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 48.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 384 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 49.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 361 | 33.4 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 Connecticut cities with population within ±25% of Ansonia. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Ansonia.
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.