In 2025, fire departments serving Valley Stream responded to 149 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $750K 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 65% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
622 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $6.9M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 7 | — | |
| 2022* | 71 | — | |
| 2023 | 221 | — | |
| 2024 | 174 | -21.3% | |
| 2025 | 149 | -14.4% |
* Well below Valley Stream'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 11 building fires Valley Stream departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3 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 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 1 | 33.3% |
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 Valley Stream mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 1 | 33.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Valley Stream departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $750,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $500 | Arcing, shorted electrical equipment | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $500 | Commercial Compactor fire, confined to rubbish | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $25 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Valley Stream sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,770 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 992 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 37.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 29.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 37.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 295 | 47.0 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 Valley Stream. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Valley Stream.
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.