In 2025, fire departments serving Sidney responded to 42 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Hazardous condition, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
143 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $36K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 49 | — | |
| 2022* | 7 | — | |
| 2023* | 1 | — | |
| 2024 | 44 | — | |
| 2025 | 42 | -4.5% |
* Well below Sidney'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 0 building fires Sidney departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 2 | Storage area, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Switchgear area, transformer vault | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 6 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Sidney mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 14.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sidney sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,218 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 163 | 46.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 140 | 38.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 75 | 49.4 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 25.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 53 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 49 | 47.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 45 | 22.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 39.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 25.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Natural | 40 | 6.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 42.8 mi |
Top 2 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 Sidney. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Sidney.
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.