In 2025, fire departments serving Middletown responded to 464 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $80K 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 64% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,259 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $319K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 375 | — | |
| 2022 | 413 | +10.1% | |
| 2023 | 430 | +4.1% | |
| 2024 | 577 | +34.2% | |
| 2025 | 464 | -19.6% |
For the 114 building fires Middletown departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 428 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 | 126 | 29.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 61 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 53 | 12.4% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 39 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 31 | 7.2% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 16 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 13 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Other | 11 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 11 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 7 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 60 | 14.0% |
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 Middletown mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 299 | 69.9% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 23 | 5.4% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 17 | 4.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 15 | 3.5% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 15 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 14 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 10 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 7 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 5 | 1.2% | |
| 10 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 4 | 0.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 19 | 4.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Middletown departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $80,000 | Fire in mobile prop. used as a fixed struc., other | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $500 | Dumpster or other outside trash receptacle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Middletown sits above 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 14,156 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 46.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 23.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,535 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 1,518 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,250 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 765 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 569 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 522 | 20.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 22.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 470 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 408 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 390 | 46.5 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 Delaware cities with population within ±25% of Middletown. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Middletown.
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.