In 2025, fire departments serving Saratoga responded to 14 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 100% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
76 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022 | 14 | — | |
| 2023 | 24 | +71.4% | |
| 2024 | 22 | -8.3% | |
| 2025 | 14 | -36.4% |
* Well below Saratoga'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 1 building fires Saratoga departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2 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 | Chimney (conversion only) | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 50.0% |
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 Saratoga mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fireworks | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 50.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Saratoga sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,779 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Smoking | 310 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 272 | 34.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 270 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 266 | 33.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 190 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Recreation and ceremony | 173 | 21.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 41.2 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 7.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 20.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 83 | 22.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 75 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 75 | 44.3 mi |
Top 4 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 Saratoga. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.