In 2025, fire departments serving Saranac responded to 19 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 84% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
71 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022 | 12 | — | |
| 2023 | 22 | +83.3% | |
| 2024 | 16 | -27.3% | |
| 2025 | 19 | +18.8% |
* Well below Saranac'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 3 building fires Saranac departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 5 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Chimney (conversion only) | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 1 | 20.0% |
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 Saranac mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Match | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 1 | 20.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Saranac sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,362 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | 547 | 17.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 330 | 19.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 255 | 47.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 106 | 30.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 92 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Natural | 80 | 21.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 77 | 19.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 75 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 65 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 60 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Recreation and ceremony | 60 | 19.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 55 | 14.8 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 | 12981 | 71 |
Six New York cities with population within ±25% of Saranac. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Saranac.
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.