In 2025, fire departments serving Wading River responded to 28 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Arcing, shorted electrical equipment lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 72% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
81 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 10 | — | |
| 2022 | 18 | +80.0% | |
| 2023 | 21 | +16.7% | |
| 2024* | 4 | — | |
| 2025 | 28 | — |
* Well below Wading River'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 4 building fires Wading River departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1 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 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 100.0% |
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 Wading River mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chemical, natural heat source, other | 1 | 100.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wading River sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 9,643 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 | 6.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,000 | 10.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 992 | 4.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 361 | 46.6 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 250 | 10.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 175 | 39.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 152 | 6.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 125 | 23.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 125 | 39.1 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 10.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 10.4 mi |
Top 6 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 Wading River. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wading River.
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.