In 2025, fire departments serving Waterbury responded to 29 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 62% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
134 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $715K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 18 | — | |
| 2022 | 35 | +94.4% | |
| 2023 | 44 | +25.7% | |
| 2024* | 8 | — | |
| 2025 | 29 | — |
* Well below Waterbury'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 3 building fires Waterbury departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 21 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 23.8% | |
| 2 | Other | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Wall assembly | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Outside area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 4.8% |
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 Waterbury mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 38.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Candle | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 4.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Waterbury departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $2,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Waterbury sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,033 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 137 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 82 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 80 | 36.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 75 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 50 | 20.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 47 | 35.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 45 | 48.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 35 | 23.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 27 | 23.3 mi |
Top 6 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Vermont cities with population within ±25% of Waterbury. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Waterbury.
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.