In 2025, fire departments serving Forestport responded to 22 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 77% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
147 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $124K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 33 | — | |
| 2022 | 54 | +63.6% | |
| 2023 | 22 | -59.3% | |
| 2024* | 16 | — | |
| 2025 | 22 | — |
* Well below Forestport'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 Forestport departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 19 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 | 6 | 31.6% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 15.8% | |
| 3 | Other | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 4 | Wall surface: exterior | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 1 | 5.3% |
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 Forestport mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 42.1% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 15.8% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Lightning | 1 | 5.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Forestport departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Forestport sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,184 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Smoking | 310 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 266 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Natural | 65 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Recreation and ceremony | 47 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 39 | 9.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 8.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Smoking | 30 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 41.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Natural | 30 | 36.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 23 | 43.6 mi |
Top 2 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 Forestport. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Forestport.
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.