In 2025, fire departments serving Rochester responded to 475 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $700K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,403 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $15.5M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 499 | — | |
| 2022 | 432 | -13.4% | |
| 2023 | 498 | +15.3% | |
| 2024 | 499 | +0.2% | |
| 2025 | 475 | -4.8% |
For the 41 building fires Rochester departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 727 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 | Undetermined | 103 | 14.2% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 94 | 12.9% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 87 | 12.0% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 81 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 62 | 8.5% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 31 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 26 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 23 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 21 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 20 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 179 | 24.6% |
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 Rochester mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 369 | 50.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 56 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 50 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 38 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 37 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 24 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 20 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 18 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 16 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 12 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 87 | 12.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Rochester departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 69% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $700,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $450,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $278,856 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $211,360 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $190,475 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Rochester sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
6 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,543 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 295 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 83 | 30.7 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 83 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 65 | 47.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 65 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 60 | 48.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 55 | 21.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 54 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54 | 41.2 mi |
Top 6 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
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.