In 2025, fire departments serving Erie County responded to 3,490 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $2.0M property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Dec dips.
13,894 incidents from 2021 through 2025.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,798 | |
| 2022 | 2,865 | |
| 2023 | 2,811 | |
| 2024 | 2,930 | |
| 2025 | 3,490 |
For the 293 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Largest single-incident property losses in Erie County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 48% of the county's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,000,000 | BUFFALO | Building fires | Major |
| 2 | $1,500,000 | BUFFALO | Building fires | Major |
| 3 | $500,000 | Cheektowaga | Building fires | Major |
| 4 | $450,000 | Lancaster | Building fires | Major |
| 5 | $250,000 | BUFFALO | Building fires | Major |
| 6 | $250,000 | BUFFALO | Fire, other | Major |
| 7 | $225,000 | Cheektowaga | Building fires | Significant |
| 8 | $200,000 | Cheektowaga | Building fires | Significant |
| 9 | $200,000 | BUFFALO | Building fires | Significant |
| 10 | $200,000 | BUFFALO | Fire, other | Significant |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.
12 cities mapped to FIPS 36029.
| City | Population | |
|---|---|---|
| Buffalo | 276,688 | View › |
| Amherst | 129,577 | View › |
| Cheektowaga | 89,474 | View › |
| Hamburg | 59,982 | View › |
| West Seneca | 45,387 | View › |
| Lancaster | 44,913 | View › |
| Clarence | 32,868 | View › |
| Orchard Park | 29,703 | View › |
| Grand Island | 21,416 | View › |
| Lackawanna | 19,762 | View › |
| Evans | 15,333 | View › |
| Kenmore | 15,155 | View › |
Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).
| # | Name | Year | Agency | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Kills Blowup | 2010 | NPS | 143 |
| 2 | GK3 | 1996 | NPS | 98 |
| 3 | NYIRR-FY19-RX-J Units | 2019 | FWS | 81 |
| 4 | GK06-01 | 2006 | NPS | 60 |
| 5 | DRIFTFENCE | 2001 | NPS | 58 |
| 6 | north40 | 1997 | NPS | 51 |
| 7 | HugeFire | 1994 | NPS | 46 |
| 8 | GOLF | 2006 | NPS | 45 |
| 9 | GRKILLS002 | 1999 | NPS | 41 |
| 10 | Spring Creek 1 | 2014 | NPS | 39 |
County-level NFIRS aggregates for 2025, plus 5-year totals across 2021–2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Wildfire risk score (0–100) and Expected Annual Loss come from FEMA's National Risk Index. Drought class is the most recent USDM classification (D0 = abnormally dry through D4 = exceptional drought). Historical fire perimeters are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.