In 2025, fire departments serving Waverly responded to 34 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 74% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
119 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 12 | — | |
| 2022 | 16 | — | |
| 2023 | 23 | +43.8% | |
| 2024 | 34 | +47.8% | |
| 2025 | 34 | +0.0% |
* Well below Waverly'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 2 building fires Waverly 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 | Structural area, other | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Chute; laundry or mail, excluding trash chutes | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 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 Waverly mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 44.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 11.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Waverly sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,661 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Natural | 161 | 39.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 130 | 36.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 102 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 95 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 93 | 38.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 85 | 5.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 73 | 27.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Smoking | 62 | 39.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 43.8 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 53 | 35.1 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 | 14892 | 119 |
Six New York cities with population within ±25% of Waverly. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Waverly.
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.