In 2025, fire departments serving Houghton responded to 13 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 77% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
33 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $6K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 6 | — | |
| 2022* | 1 | — | |
| 2023 | 8 | — | |
| 2024 | 5 | -37.5% | |
| 2025 | 13 | +160.0% |
* Well below Houghton'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 0 building fires Houghton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Laboratory | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Houghton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 14.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Houghton sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,158 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 150 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 88 | 30.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 52 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 52 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 39.4 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 48 | 17.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 44 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 44 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 43 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 43 | 35.8 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14744 | 33 |
Six New York cities with population within ±25% of Houghton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Houghton.
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.