In 2025, fire departments serving McGraw responded to 24 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 71% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
72 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $312K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 8 | — | |
| 2022 | 10 | — | |
| 2023 | 16 | +60.0% | |
| 2024 | 14 | -12.5% | |
| 2025 | 24 | +71.4% |
* Well below McGraw'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 3 building fires McGraw departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 38.5% | |
| 2 | Other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Assembly area without fixed seats - 100+ persons | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Structural area, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 7.7% |
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 McGraw mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cigarette | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 9 | Undetermined | 1 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by McGraw departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. McGraw sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,590 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 694 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 34.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 85 | 40.9 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 53 | 32.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 49 | 6.4 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 27.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 25.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 37 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 31 | 12.3 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 30 | 38.7 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 | 13101 | 72 |
Six New York cities with population within ±25% of McGraw. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in McGraw.
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.