25 U.S. cities with the highest risk of home fires

Home fire risk, safety & prevention 

The Connecticut-based insurer, The Hartford, recently released its ranking of the 100 U.S. cities with the highest home fire risk. The Home Fire Index is based on an analysis of the U.S. Fire Administration's National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) and a survey conducted by The Hartford on fire safety and prevention behaviors among the general population. 

The Index looked at the largest U.S. cities with a minimum of 80,000 housing units as reported by the 2010 U.S. Census. The Hartford also conducted a survey on fire safety and prevention behaviors among the general population in late 2016 and in early 2017.

Survey respondents (approximately 100 per city) were given a score based on adoption of fire safety best practices. Standardized fire rates and survey scores were averaged to produce a composite score for each city.

Additional key findings of the study:

• 1 in 8 Americans have experienced a home fire.
• The top cause of fires according the The Hartford survey are electrical (26 percent), cooking/their stove (25 percent) or a candle (12 percent).

According to The Hartford Home Fire Index, the U.S. cities with the lowest home fire risk are Glendale, Arizona; Urban Honolulu, Hawaii; Spring Valley, Nevada; Corpus Christi, Texas; Marietta, Georgia; and San Francisco, California.

So, which metro areas have the most dangerous odds of a residential fire? Here are the 25 cities with the highest risk of home fires, as ranked by The Hartford Home Fire Index:

Fire officials stand at the scene of an early morning house fire in Baltimore on Jan. 12, 2017. Fire officials said in a news release Tuesday, Jan. 24, a woman who lost six of her nine children in the house fire has been released from the hospital. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File).

25. Montgomery, Alabama

Firefighters work near the rubble of a burned out home as they look for clues to a fire that authorities say killed six people in Newark, N.J., Sunday, June 16, 2014. The Essex County prosecutor's office says the fast-moving fire that roared through a single-family home in New Jersey's largest city, broke out at around 4 a.m. Sunday. Authorities say it appears some of the victims are related. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

24. Newark, New Jersey

Firefighters stand outside the Hamilton, Ohio, home where an early morning fire killed three children and sent their parents and two other kids to hospitals on Friday, Dec. 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Dan Sewell)

23. Cleveland, Ohio

A large cross surrounded by seven small crosses, one for each fire victim, stands outside the beach house that burned Sunday in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., Friday, November 2, 2007. The fire killed seven college students. (AP Photo/Logan Wallace)

22. Fayetteville, North Carolina

Firefighters battle a blaze in New Ulm, Minn. (AP Photo/The Journal of New Ulm, Bruce Fenske)

21. St. Paul, Minnesota

A neighbor walks past the side of a charred single-story house after a fatal fire killed five, including four children, in Newnan, Ga., Saturday, April 27, 2013. (AP Photo/David Tulis)

20. Savannah, Georgia

An official from the Florida State Fire Marshall's office, center, watches as members of Marion County Fire Rescue douse hot spots at the scene of a house fire that killed five children Monday night, in Citra, Fla., Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010.(AP Photo/John Raoux)

19. Hialeah, Florida

A firefighter inspects a charred home while standing on a ladder from a fire truck in Jersey City, N.J. on Thursday, March 6, 2014. Mayor Steven Fulop said a couple in their 80s and their two sons, who are in their 50s, were unaccounted for after the blaze on Grant Avenue was extinguished early Thursday. Authorities have not identified the two bodies that were found in the charred home. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

18. Jersey City, New Jersey

A fire swept through a mobile home Sunday, Sept. 15, 2013, killing a man and five children in Tiffin, Ohio, according to police. Fire crews pulled the man and the children from the home, and all six were taken to Tiffin Mercy Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. The fire was reported shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday in a mobile home park in Tiffin, about 50 miles southeast of Toledo. (AP Photo/J.D. Pooley)

17. Toledo, Ohio

Pittsburgh police look over the front of a boarding house after a fatal fire Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, in Pittsburgh. Fire Chief Darryl Jones said heavy flames were visible when crews arrived, and the fire was so intense that it set off an alarm next door. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

16. Syracuse, New York

Related: It's Fire Prevention Week. Here are 6 things you need to know

Debris lay scattered behind the house at the scene of a fire in the Brooklyn borough of New York Saturday, March 21, 2015. The fire raged through the residence early Saturday, killing seven children and leaving two other people in critical condition, authorities said. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

15. Rochester, New York

Firefighters work in the freezing temperatures at the site of a fire in the Queens borough of New York, Sunday, March 5, 2017. Hundreds of firefighters responded to the seven-alarm fire which destroyed at least seven buildings. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

14. New York, New York

City workers board up the scene of a fatal fire Friday, Jan. 8, 2016, in Philadelphia. A pregnant mother ran into her burning row house to rescue her toddler Friday morning but died along with the child when smoke prevented their escape, officials said. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

13. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Firefighters work the scene of a house fire Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, in Enfield, Conn., about 20 miles north of Hartford. Officials said four people were unaccounted for. (AP Photo/Dave Collins)

12. Wilmington, Delaware

Ice covers the fire escape of an apartment building that caught fire, Wednesday, March 15, 2017, in Yonkers, N.Y. Authorities say the fire, which may have started on the fifth floor early Wednesday morning, has left one person dead and forced dozens of people into the cold. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

11. Yonkers, New York

Firefighters enter a burned out home in the aftermath of a fatal fire Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014, in Philadelphia. A firefighter was trapped in the basement of the burning row home, becoming the first female member of the Philadelphia Fire Department to die in the line of duty, officials said.  (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

10. Augusta, Georgia

Frederick Terrell looks inside the home where an early morning fire killed multiple people, including children, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, in Memphis, Tenn. Terrell said he is a friend of the family that lived in the home. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)

9. Memphis, Tennessee

Firefighters with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department move debris at the scene of a fatal fire in Jacksonville, Fla., Friday, April 7, 2006. Four young children and their paternal grandparents were killed Friday when a fire raced through their doublewide mobile home, hours after they had returned from an out-of-state trip. (AP Photo/Oscar Sosa)

8. Tallahassee, Florida

East St. Louis Firefighters Lt. Maury Warr and John Moore work to extinguish hot spots at a house fire in East St. Louis, Ill., Saturday, Feb. 23, 2008. As flames consumed her home and prevented her parents from helping, a quick-thinking 12-year-old girl saved two younger siblings Saturday by kicking out a second-story window, firefighters said. (AP Photo/Belleville News Democrat, Derik Holtmann)

7. St. Louis, Missouri

Flames leap from the windows of a burning house in Atlantic City N.J. as firefighters lift a hose onto the porch on Wednesday, April 29, 2015. No injuries were reported in the fire, which broke out about two blocks from the casino district.(AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

6. Trenton, New Jersey

Alexandria firefighters battle a house fire in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, Va. on Friday, May 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

5. Richmond, Virginia

Elmer Crawley, Gordy Yoesting's half-brother, looks over the burned remains of the home in Flint, Mich., where Yoesting died in a fire. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

4. Flint, Michigan

South Deerfield firemen walk near charred debris following a deadly house fire, Saturday, March 4, 2017, in Warwick, Mass. A mother and four children were killed when flames swept through their rural Massachusetts home early Saturday, fire officials said. Two other family members escaped the fire, which broke in the single-family house. (Kieran Kesner /The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

3. Boston, Massachusettes

This Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016 photo released by the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal shows the aftermath of a fatal fire at a home in Kaplan, La. Multiple news outlets reported that the deaths were caused by apparent smoke inhalation. (Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal via AP)

2. Shreveport, Louisiana

Windows are boarded up on a burned house, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015 in Hamtramck, Mich. Children are among four people who died early Tuesday in a house fire near Detroit that was so intense that rescuers who rushed inside the home couldn't reach them in time, officials said. Crews responded about 1:50 a.m. and the bodies were found upstairs in the two-story home in the Detroit enclave of Hamtramck, fire Chief Paul Wilk said. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

1. Detroit, Michigan

Related: Home fire risk more than doubles on Thanksgiving Day