In 2025, fire departments serving South Farmingdale responded to 49 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 77% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
254 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $195K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 29 | — | |
| 2022 | 70 | — | |
| 2023 | 61 | -12.9% | |
| 2024 | 45 | -26.2% | |
| 2025 | 49 | +8.9% |
* Well below South Farmingdale'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 South Farmingdale departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 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 | Function area, other | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Structural area, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Wall assembly | 1 | 11.1% |
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 South Farmingdale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 1 | 11.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. South Farmingdale sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,740 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,050 | 41.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 27.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 992 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 49.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 34.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 49.6 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 27.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 230 | 48.7 mi |
Top 8 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 South Farmingdale. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in South Farmingdale.
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.