Forty-eight people died from fires in New York City last year, the fewest at any point in more than a century, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday.

The decline — with the total far below the peak of 310 people in 1970 — was attributed by officials to a combination of initiatives undertaken by the Fire Department, including improved response times, fire inspections, a program to hand out smoke alarms and expanded fire education programs.

“All fires are down, and large fires are down even more,” the fire commissioner, Daniel A. Nigro, said while seated with Mr. de Blasio at a bright red table inside a Chinatown firehouse, Engine 9, Ladder 6. “It is working.”

The announcement followed a similar news conference last week in which Mr. de Blasio and officials from the Police Department heralded another set of record numbers: the fewest shootings recorded by the city in at least two decades, along with other low crime figures.