A stacked bar chart showing the proportion of survival-related fires among all fires a year before and a year into the pandemic. Also, a year after the first surge, which include projections for the following two months.

Survival-related fires are defined as fires started for warmth, cooking or other daily activities. These numbers are likely underestimates due to the brief descriptions in the narrative section of fire reports used to determine whether they were “survival-related.” Fires in 2019 and 2020 were each counted for the 12 months starting March 1 of that year.

*Fires for the following year were tallied from March 1 to Dec. 22, 2021, the latest data available, which include projections for the following months.