In 2025, fire departments serving Penn Yan responded to 81 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K 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 82% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
408 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $53K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 45 | — | |
| 2022 | 107 | — | |
| 2023 | 79 | -26.2% | |
| 2024 | 96 | +21.5% | |
| 2025 | 81 | -15.6% |
* Well below Penn Yan'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 6 building fires Penn Yan 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 | Equipment or service area, other | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Structural area, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 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 Penn Yan mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 4 | Lightning | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 1 | 12.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Penn Yan departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $200 | Overheated motor | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1 | Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1 | Carbon monoxide incident | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1 | Hazardous condition, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1 | Gasoline or other flammable liquid spill | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1 | Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1 | Arcing, shorted electrical equipment | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Penn Yan sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,087 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 | 26.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 150 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 130 | 43.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 88 | 38.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 85 | 49.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 45.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 52 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 52 | 28.7 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 45.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 49 | 46.2 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 | 14527 | 408 |
Six New York cities with population within ±25% of Penn Yan. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Penn Yan.
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.