Only about a dozen states had more than seven fires with animal fatalities over the time period analyzed and New York was the leader in the upper Midwest and Northeast regions — the regions where fires were most common.

Prygoski noted the number of fires and animal deaths in the data are also likely low as not all fires may have received media coverage, or even in the case of media coverage the number of animal deaths may not have been disclosed.

The Aurora Ridge Dairy Farm's fire in Ledyard this spring, for example, didn't report the number of animal deaths after a devastating, accidental fire destroyed a calf barn that housed 300 calves.

Farm co-owner Dave Harvatine told The Citizen at the time that about 110 calves were in the portion of the building that burned down, but he was reluctant to give a number of fatalities, only commenting that the farm "lost some, but saved a lot ... we lost more than we wanted to."