In 2025, fire departments serving Hartford responded to 21 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 76% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
64 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022 | 10 | — | |
| 2023 | 17 | +70.0% | |
| 2024 | 14 | -17.6% | |
| 2025 | 21 | +50.0% |
* 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 7 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 6 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 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Storage area, other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 1 | 16.7% |
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 | Heat source: other | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 1 | 16.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hartford sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,941 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Smoking | 310 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 272 | 46.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 270 | 25.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 266 | 39.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 190 | 29.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Recreation and ceremony | 173 | 16.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 121 | 36.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Recreation and ceremony | 117 | 38.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 21.2 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 95 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 83 | 6.4 mi |
Top 5 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six New York cities with population within ±25% of Hartford. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Hartford.
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.