In 2025, fire departments serving Williamsville responded to 111 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
535 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $43K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 48 | — | |
| 2022 | 113 | — | |
| 2023 | 166 | +46.9% | |
| 2024 | 97 | -41.6% | |
| 2025 | 111 | +14.4% |
* Well below Williamsville'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 Williamsville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 5 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 60.0% | |
| 2 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 20.0% |
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 Williamsville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 60.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 20.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Williamsville departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,000 | Dumpster or other outside trash receptacle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $400 | Overheated motor | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Williamsville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 9 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 136 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Smoking | 25 | 39.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 20 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 19 | 39.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 16 | 11.4 mi | |
| 1997 | Smoking | 15 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11 | 16.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Natural | 10 | 16.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 10 | 17.5 mi |
Top 3 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 Williamsville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Williamsville.
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.