In 2025, fire departments serving Christiana responded to 25 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Fire, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 80% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
116 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $2K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 12 | — | |
| 2022 | 25 | — | |
| 2023 | 31 | +24.0% | |
| 2024 | 23 | -25.8% | |
| 2025 | 25 | +8.7% |
* Well below Christiana'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 4 building fires Christiana departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 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 | Outside area, other | 3 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Maintenance shop or area, paint shop or area | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 11.1% |
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 Christiana mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 1 | 11.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Christiana sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,165 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 935 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 741 | 21.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 522 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 470 | 32.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 120 | 38.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 101 | 40.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 48.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 80 | 46.7 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17509 | 116 |
Six Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Christiana. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Christiana.
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.