In 2025, fire departments serving Chester responded to 67 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 78% of all calls.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
336 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $1.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 117 | — | |
| 2022 | 110 | -6.0% | |
| 2023* | 24 | — | |
| 2024* | 18 | — | |
| 2025 | 67 | — |
* Well below Chester'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 7 building fires Chester departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 50 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 20 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 10 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 5 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 4 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 6.0% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 2 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Personal service area, barber/beauty salon area | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Switchgear area, transformer vault | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 2.0% |
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 Chester mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 28 | 56.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 12 | 24.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 5 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 6 | Match | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 7 | Sunlight | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 8 | Lightning | 1 | 2.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Chester sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 26,939 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,949 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Smoking | 2,855 | 31.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 2,759 | 19.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,028 | 22.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 998 | 31.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 995 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 866 | 31.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 13.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 615 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 11.4 mi |
Top 3 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 Chester. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Chester.
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.