In 2025, fire departments serving Schenectady responded to 584 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 54% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,411 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.6M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 135 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,039 | — | |
| 2023 | 1,127 | +8.5% | |
| 2024 | 526 | -53.3% | |
| 2025 | 584 | +11.0% |
* Well below Schenectady'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 30 building fires Schenectady departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 463 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 | 50 | 10.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 45 | 9.7% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 39 | 8.4% | |
| 4 | Other | 35 | 7.6% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 34 | 7.3% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 28 | 6.0% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 24 | 5.2% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 17 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 14 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 11 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 166 | 35.9% |
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 Schenectady mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 179 | 38.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 72 | 15.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 57 | 12.3% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 28 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 24 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 17 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 15 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Candle | 12 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 11 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 39 | 8.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Schenectady departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 92% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $60,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $35,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Special outside fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Schenectady sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
29 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 8 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 7 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,548 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Smoking | 310 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 272 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 266 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Recreation and ceremony | 173 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 146 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 38.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 26.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 22.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Equipment and vehicle use | 90 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | 83 | 45.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 39.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 75 | 29.6 mi |
Top 10 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 Schenectady. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Schenectady.
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.