In 2025, fire departments serving Erie responded to 299 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Prescribed fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,007 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $178K cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 575 | — | |
| 2022 | 599 | +4.2% | |
| 2023 | 307 | -48.7% | |
| 2024* | 227 | — | |
| 2025 | 299 | — |
* Well below Erie'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 47 building fires Erie departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 238 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 | 43 | 18.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 40 | 16.8% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 32 | 13.4% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 21 | 8.8% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 13 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 7 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Other | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 4 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 65 | 27.3% |
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 Erie mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 97 | 40.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 37 | 15.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 19 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 16 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 6 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 5 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 35 | 14.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Erie sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
11 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 17 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,226 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 780 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 85 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 72 | 39.8 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 45 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 30 | 45.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 29 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 15.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 23 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 23 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 20 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 19 | 39.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 15 | 44.7 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 Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Erie. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Erie.
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.