In 2025, fire departments serving Hartford responded to 564 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $12K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 54% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,952 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $3.4M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 173 | — | |
| 2022 | 980 | — | |
| 2023 | 661 | -32.6% | |
| 2024 | 574 | -13.2% | |
| 2025 | 564 | -1.7% |
* Well below Hartford'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 22 building fires Hartford departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,229 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 | 293 | 23.8% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 153 | 12.4% | |
| 3 | Other | 118 | 9.6% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 110 | 9.0% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 100 | 8.1% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 100 | 8.1% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 36 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 33 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 28 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Function area, other | 27 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 231 | 18.8% |
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 Hartford mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 415 | 33.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 356 | 29.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 76 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 57 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 51 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 43 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 34 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 30 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Arcing | 24 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 23 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 120 | 9.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hartford departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $12,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $500 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hartford sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,660 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,300 | 20.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 550 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 384 | 33.8 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 361 | 16.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 321 | 29.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Recreation and ceremony | 285 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 37.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 180 | 21.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 180 | 21.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 175 | 27.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 14.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Recreation and ceremony | 154 | 42.8 mi |
Top 10 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 Hartford. 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.