In 2025, fire departments serving Oakville responded to 32 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 78% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
133 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 24 | — | |
| 2022 | 27 | +12.5% | |
| 2023* | 7 | — | |
| 2024 | 43 | — | |
| 2025 | 32 | -25.6% |
* Well below Oakville'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 0 building fires Oakville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 10 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 | 30.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 10.0% |
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 Oakville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 3 | 30.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 10.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Oakville sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 11,006 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,050 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,300 | 12.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 550 | 25.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 384 | 18.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 361 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 321 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Recreation and ceremony | 285 | 22.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 277 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 240 | 46.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 43.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 180 | 5.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 180 | 5.9 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 06779 | 133 |
Six Connecticut cities with population within ±25% of Oakville. 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.