In 2025, fire departments serving Garden City South responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 94% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
65 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $4K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 9 | — | |
| 2022 | 12 | +33.3% | |
| 2023 | 10 | -16.7% | |
| 2024 | 17 | +70.0% | |
| 2025 | 17 | +0.0% |
For the 0 building fires Garden City South departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1 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 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 100.0% |
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 Garden City South mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1 | 100.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Garden City South sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 9,539 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 992 | 44.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 38.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 40.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 27.7 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 Garden City South. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.