In 2025, fire departments serving York responded to 555 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,303 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $17.0M cumulative property loss. 12 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 729 | — | |
| 2022 | 726 | -0.4% | |
| 2023 | 1,198 | +65.0% | |
| 2024 | 1,095 | -8.6% | |
| 2025 | 555 | -49.3% |
For the 117 building fires York departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 966 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 | 125 | 12.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 89 | 9.2% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 84 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 83 | 8.6% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 68 | 7.0% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 53 | 5.5% | |
| 7 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 46 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 41 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 34 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Undetermined | 28 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 315 | 32.6% |
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 York mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 328 | 34.0% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 130 | 13.5% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 113 | 11.7% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 69 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 51 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 46 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 37 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 31 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 21 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 19 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 121 | 12.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by York departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 56% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. York sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
65 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 | 8 | |
| 10-19 | 5 | |
| 20-29 | 18 | |
| 30-39 | 16 | |
| 40-49 | 6 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 5 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,931 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 935 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 75 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 74 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 72 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 59 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 55 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 48 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 25.3 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of York. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in York.
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.