In 2025, fire departments serving Darien responded to 33 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
228 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $50K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 8 | — | |
| 2022 | 28 | — | |
| 2023 | 86 | +207.1% | |
| 2024 | 73 | -15.1% | |
| 2025 | 33 | -54.8% |
* Well below Darien'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 2 building fires Darien departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 50 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 | Undetermined | 35 | 70.0% | |
| 2 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Other | 2 | 4.0% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 4.0% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 2 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 8 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 2.0% |
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 Darien mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 42 | 84.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 4.0% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 4.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 2.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Darien sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 35,778 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 4,035 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,500 | 0.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 3,482 | 2.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Natural | 2,551 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 2,500 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,228 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,778 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 1,742 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 1,488 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 22.6 mi | |
| 1998 | Natural | 1,080 | 12.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 1,076 | 45.3 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 | 31305 | 228 |
Six Georgia cities with population within ±25% of Darien. 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.