In 2025, fire departments serving Buffalo responded to 1,723 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,126 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $14.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 43 | — | |
| 2023* | 9 | — | |
| 2024 | 1,349 | — | |
| 2025 | 1,723 | +27.7% |
* 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 49 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 362 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 | 100 | 27.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 29 | 8.0% | |
| 3 | Other | 26 | 7.2% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 22 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 22 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 15 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 14 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 14 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 14 | 3.9% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 13 | 3.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 93 | 25.7% |
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 | 195 | 53.9% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 59 | 16.3% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 22 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 17 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 11 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 10 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 7 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 6 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Radiated heat from another fire | 6 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 24 | 6.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Buffalo departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 51% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $250,000 | Fire, other | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $200,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $200,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Buffalo sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 12 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 237 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 72 | 45.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 25 | 34.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 20 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 19 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 16 | 14.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Smoking | 15 | 43.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 15 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Other causes | 14 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 10 | 17.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 10 | 19.5 mi |
Top 10 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 Buffalo. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Buffalo.
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.