In 2025, fire departments serving Lancaster responded to 68 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $450K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 75% of all calls.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
358 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $477K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 25 | — | |
| 2022 | 67 | — | |
| 2023 | 121 | +80.6% | |
| 2024 | 77 | -36.4% | |
| 2025 | 68 | -11.7% |
* Well below Lancaster'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 4 building fires Lancaster departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 21 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 | 9 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 4 | 19.0% | |
| 3 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Structural area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 4.8% |
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 Lancaster mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 6 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 4.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lancaster departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $450,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $15,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lancaster sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 16 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 335 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 88 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 42 | 46.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 25 | 36.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 47.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 20 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 19 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 16 | 5.1 mi | |
| 1997 | Smoking | 15 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Other causes | 14 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 13 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11 | 15.7 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 | 14086 | 358 |
Six New York cities with population within ±25% of Lancaster. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Lancaster.
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.