In 2025, fire departments serving Leicester responded to 29 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 100% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
47 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 7 | — | |
| 2024 | 9 | +28.6% | |
| 2025 | 29 | +222.2% |
* Well below Leicester'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 Leicester departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2 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 | Other | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 50.0% |
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 Leicester mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 1 | 50.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Leicester sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,079 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Smoking | 145 | 38.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 88 | 6.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 52 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 48 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 44 | 24.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 43 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 43 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 42 | 8.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 17.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 40 | 24.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Recreation and ceremony | 33 | 19.5 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 | 14481 | 47 |
Six New York cities with population within ±25% of Leicester. 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.