In 2025, fire departments serving New Haven responded to 51 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
162 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $245K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 11 | — | |
| 2022* | 12 | — | |
| 2023 | 34 | — | |
| 2024 | 54 | +58.8% | |
| 2025 | 51 | -5.6% |
* Well below New Haven'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 15 building fires New Haven departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 27 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 | 6 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 18.5% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 4 | Wall assembly | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Wall surface: exterior | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 4 | 14.8% |
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 New Haven mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 14 | 51.9% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 18.5% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 3.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by New Haven departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. New Haven sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 9,052 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,475 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,026 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 685 | 18.2 mi | |
| 1997 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 522 | 47.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 517 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 387 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 365 | 43.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 360 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 34.4 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 270 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 265 | 10.8 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Missouri cities with population within ±25% of New Haven. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in New Haven.
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.