In 2025, fire departments serving Vestal responded to 119 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 50% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
418 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 100 | — | |
| 2022 | 150 | +50.0% | |
| 2023* | 37 | — | |
| 2024* | 12 | — | |
| 2025 | 119 | — |
* Well below Vestal'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 Vestal departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 2 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Office | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 7.7% |
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 Vestal mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 38.5% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 7.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Vestal sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,366 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 136 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 102 | 40.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 85 | 24.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 81 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 76 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 75 | 42.4 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 57 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 53 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 53 | 10.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 49 | 33.0 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 13850 | 418 |
Six New York cities with population within ±25% of Vestal. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Vestal.
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.