In 2025, fire departments serving Sanborn responded to 27 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1 building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Accident, potential accident, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 89% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
102 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $69K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 9 | — | |
| 2022 | 13 | — | |
| 2023 | 38 | +192.3% | |
| 2024 | 15 | -60.5% | |
| 2025 | 27 | +80.0% |
* Well below Sanborn'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 Sanborn departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 16 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 | 6 | 37.5% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Other | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Storage area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Machinery room or area; elevator machinery room | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 1 | 6.2% |
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 Sanborn mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 9 | 56.2% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 6.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sanborn departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sanborn sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 4 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 47 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 16 | 25.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11 | 20.3 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 10 | 4.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 10 | 3.2 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 | 14132 | 102 |
Six New York cities with population within ±25% of Sanborn. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Sanborn.
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.