On Wednesday, the American Red Cross of Utah sent out a press release reporting on the number of house fires it had responded to statewide, noting that the organization had responded to 154 home fires and helped 728 people. This was slightly lower than the 159 home fire responses reported in 2024 and a far cry from the 185 home fire responses reported in 2022.

However, when Ogden achieved the grim milestone of the 100th house fire response for 2025 last August, officials weren’t nearly as confident in the downward trend continuing.

“Hitting 100 right here at the end of summer is unusual,” Michael Smauldon, executive director of the American Red Cross Northern Utah Chapter, told the Standard-Examiner at the time.

It was further reported in a press release at that time that the American Red Cross of Utah was on pace to see more than 170 home fire responses before the year was out.

Speaking with the Standard-Examiner on Wednesday, Smauldon said a lot of the drop off in responses had to do with the weather in the last four months of 2025.

“We had a lot more warmer temperatures,” he said. “People are not struggling to try and keep their homes warm as they have in the past. When people are trying to do things to keep their homes warm and they can’t afford gas or electricity or propane to keep their homes warm, they use different ways to try and do that. With the warmer temperatures this year, there just haven’t been that many towards the end of 2025.”

Smauldon said it’s a good day for the Red Cross when there doesn’t have to be response to a home fire.

“We don’t wish for home fires, but we always prepare our teams to respond in case it does happen,” he said. “The more we can make our community more resilient and paying attention to hazards that do cause fires more often, it’s a good day.

He added that home fires are ultimately the most frequent disasters that the American Red Cross responds to.

“Red Cross is not just for large-scale disasters — we’re here to support the community in the small ones too,” he said. “Fires are our largest response that we do here in the state of Utah.”

According to the release, since 2020, Red Cross teams in Utah have responded to 1,008 home fires and supported 4,649 people.