In 2025, fire departments serving Albany responded to 19 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $40K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 74% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
103 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $672K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 31 | — | |
| 2022 | 25 | -19.4% | |
| 2023 | 28 | +12.0% | |
| 2024* | 0 | — | |
| 2025 | 19 | — |
* Well below Albany's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 3 building fires Albany departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 20 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 7 | 35.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Equipment or service area, other | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 5.0% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Albany mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 5.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Albany departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $40,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $350 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Albany sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,061 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 1,737 | 33.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 1,299 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,260 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,250 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 847 | 47.6 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 830 | 28.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 750 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 710 | 34.4 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 680 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 663 | 44.0 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 640 | 40.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 620 | 18.8 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 56307 | 103 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Albany. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.