Chimney Fires Spike During Cold Snaps: 7 Years of Fire Department Data

Published October 2026 · Source: U.S. Fire Administration, National Fire Incident Reporting System (2019–2025)

We analyzed 88,524 chimney fires reported by U.S. fire departments from 2019 through 2025. Chimney fires climb through the winter, but the worst days come in bursts: when an arctic blast arrives, households burn their fireplaces and wood stoves harder and longer than usual, and chimney fires jump.

Key findings

• The worst day in seven years was Dec 23, 2022, during the Winter Storm Elliott arctic blast. Fire departments reported 4.4 times as many chimney fires as on a normal day that month.
• In Texas, chimney fires hit 14.8 times a normal winter day on Feb 15, 2021, the first day of the statewide power blackouts during the February 2021 winter storm.
• In every winter we studied, the 10 worst days alone produced 8.7–12.4% of that season's chimney fires.
• 27% of chimney fires start between 5 and 8 p.m., in the hours after the evening fire is lit.
• The season starts early. October has 3.6 times as many chimney fires as September, and 18% of the year's chimney fires happen in September through November, before winter officially begins.

The 10 worst days for chimney fires, 2019–2025

"Normal day" is the median day in the month around each date, leaving out the three days on either side. Weather events are named only where we confirmed the date in news coverage.

When chimney fires happen: by month

By time of day

Hour the fire department received the alarm, 0 = midnight.

Each state's worst day

For each state, the single worst day for chimney fires from 2019 to 2025, compared with that state's average day from December through February. States with fewer than 700 reported chimney fires over the seven years are left out.

States where cold snaps are rare (Texas, Georgia, Arkansas) show the biggest jumps: few homes use a fireplace on a normal winter day, so a hard freeze changes behavior the most. In states with fewer reports, a single bad day moves the multiple a lot, so read those rows as a sign of a spike rather than an exact size.

What homeowners can do before the next cold snap

• Have the chimney inspected before the first hard freeze. The National Fire Protection Association standard (NFPA 211) calls for chimneys, fireplaces and vents to be inspected at least once a year.
• Burn dry, seasoned wood. Wet wood makes more creosote, the tar-like buildup that catches fire.
• During an arctic blast, don't keep a fire roaring for hours or overload the firebox to make up for a failed furnace.

Find a chimney sweep near you.

Methodology

Data: U.S. Fire Administration National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) public data release, 2019–2025, incident type 114, "Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue." NFIRS is voluntary: not every fire department reports, and participation varies by state and year. For that reason we report timing, shares and multiples, not totals; FEMA advises that raw NFIRS counts are not a measure of all fires. Dates are the incident date; times are when the alarm was received. Fires that spread beyond the chimney are coded differently and are not included, so these figures understate how many fires start in chimneys. NFIRS was replaced by NERIS in January 2026, so 2025 is the last year in this format.

Download the data / for journalists

Chimney fires by day, 2019–2025 (CSV) · State worst days (CSV)

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