In 2025, fire departments serving East Meadow responded to 45 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Fire, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
289 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 71 | — | |
| 2022 | 103 | +45.1% | |
| 2023* | 14 | — | |
| 2024 | 56 | — | |
| 2025 | 45 | -19.6% |
* Well below East Meadow'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 5 building fires East Meadow departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 18 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 | Structural area, other | 6 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 27.8% | |
| 3 | Function area, other | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 5.6% |
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 East Meadow mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 44.4% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 27.8% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Candle | 1 | 5.6% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. East Meadow sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,573 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,050 | 47.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 992 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 45.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 30.4 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 43.8 mi |
Top 6 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 East Meadow. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in East Meadow.
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.