In 2025, fire departments serving Cos Cob responded to 87 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $20K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 72% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
250 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $21K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 44 | — | |
| 2022 | 70 | +59.1% | |
| 2023 | 37 | -47.1% | |
| 2024* | 12 | — | |
| 2025 | 87 | — |
* Well below Cos Cob'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 1 building fires Cos Cob departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 11 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 | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 2 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 6 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 7 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 9.1% |
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 Cos Cob mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 45.5% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 9.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cos Cob departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $500 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cos Cob sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
31 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 | 9 | |
| 30-39 | 12 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 14,653 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 | 46.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 992 | 41.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 27.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 550 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 27.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 30.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 26.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 18.1 mi |
Top 2 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 Cos Cob. 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.