In 2025, fire departments serving Amherst responded to 71 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $75K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 65% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
510 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $83K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 55 | — | |
| 2022 | 133 | — | |
| 2023 | 159 | +19.5% | |
| 2024 | 92 | -42.1% | |
| 2025 | 71 | -22.8% |
* Well below Amherst'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 1 building fires Amherst departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3 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 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 1 | 33.3% |
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 Amherst mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 1 | 33.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Amherst departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $75,000 | Dumpster or other outside trash receptacle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Amherst sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 7 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 111 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Smoking | 25 | 42.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 20 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 19 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 16 | 14.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11 | 15.4 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 10 | 13.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 10 | 14.2 mi |
Top 5 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six New York cities with population within ±25% of Amherst. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Amherst.
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.