In 2025, fire departments serving Red Hook responded to 56 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10 building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 77% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
160 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $180K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 30 | — | |
| 2022* | 6 | — | |
| 2023 | 32 | — | |
| 2024 | 36 | +12.5% | |
| 2025 | 56 | +55.6% |
* Well below Red Hook'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 5 building fires Red Hook departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 10 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 | Outside area, other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Structural area, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 9 | Undetermined | 1 | 10.0% |
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 Red Hook mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 3 | 30.0% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Match | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Red Hook departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Red Hook sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 16,091 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Smoking | 2,855 | 23.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 2,759 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,028 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,300 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 998 | 23.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 866 | 25.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 550 | 28.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 388 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 384 | 32.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 300 | 42.5 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 Red Hook. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Red Hook.
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.