In 2025, fire departments serving North Castle responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K building blaze. 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 67% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
81 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $35K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 27 | — | |
| 2023 | 16 | -40.7% | |
| 2024 | 18 | +12.5% | |
| 2025 | 15 | -16.7% |
* Well below North Castle'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 1 building fires North Castle departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 8 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 | Storage area, other | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Surgery area - major operations, operating room | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 12.5% |
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 North Castle mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 37.5% | |
| 3 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 12.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by North Castle departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. North Castle sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,018 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 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 992 | 47.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 22.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 21.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 550 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 26.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 19.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 22.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 18.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 384 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 13.9 mi |
Top 5 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 North Castle. 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.