In 2025, fire departments serving Buffalo responded to 91 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $700K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 73% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
393 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $3.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 119 | — | |
| 2022 | 107 | -10.1% | |
| 2023 | 70 | -34.6% | |
| 2024* | 6 | — | |
| 2025 | 91 | — |
* Well below Buffalo'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 20 building fires Buffalo departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 68 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 15 | 22.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 10 | 14.7% | |
| 3 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 8 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 4 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Entrance way, lobby | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Egress/exit, other | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Outside area, other | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 17 | 25.0% |
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 Buffalo mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 29 | 42.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 13 | 19.1% | |
| 3 | Cigarette | 6 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 4 | 5.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Buffalo departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $700,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $120,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $13,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Buffalo sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 22,459 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 8,513 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,550 | 37.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 1,737 | 48.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 1,299 | 21.8 mi | |
| 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,000 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 710 | 49.4 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 640 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 480 | 48.1 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 430 | 48.6 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 423 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 420 | 36.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 400 | 48.5 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 | 55313 | 393 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Buffalo. 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.