In 2025, fire departments serving Fairfield responded to 22 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Trash or rubbish fire, contained lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 64% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
33 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $103K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 3 | — | |
| 2023* | 2 | — | |
| 2024 | 6 | — | |
| 2025 | 22 | +266.7% |
* Well below Fairfield'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 Fairfield departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 5 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 | 3 | 60.0% | |
| 2 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 20.0% |
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 Fairfield mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 100.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Fairfield departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Fairfield sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,423 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | 547 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 80 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 55 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 52 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 51 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 50 | 14.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 45 | 26.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 44 | 47.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 | 41.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 38 | 37.1 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Vermont cities with population within ±25% of Fairfield. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Fairfield.
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.