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2025 County Report

Fires in Essex County, NY

In 2025, fire departments serving Essex County responded to 166 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $3.0M property loss.

45,120 residents FIPS 36031 70 cities · 0 fire depts
Total incidents
166
810 across 5 years
Building fires
19
8 wildland
Property loss
$4.0M
$3.2M structure · $800K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Power line down lead by count. Top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.

166
Total Incidents
Power line down 30 18.1%
Vehicle accident, general cleanup 23 13.9%
Building fires 19 11.4%
Carbon monoxide incident 17 10.2%
Hazardous condition, other 16 9.6%
All other categories 61 36.7%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Essex County?

Jul peaks. Feb dips.

Jan 10
Feb 8
Mar 9
Apr 14
May 9
Jun 15
Jul 24
Aug 19
Sep 16
Oct 19
Nov 14
Dec 9
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Essex County

810 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 99
2022 182
2023 158
2024 205
2025 166
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 19 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
77%
10
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
8%
1
Under investigation
15%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

2 fires · $3.2M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Essex County during 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $3,000,000 Schroon Lake Building fires Major
2 $200,000 Schroon Lake Building fires Significant
06 How Essex County compares

Essex County vs NY vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

3.68
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Essex County
3.68
NY avg
3.48
US avg
7.15
0.42
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Essex County
0.42
NY avg
0.2
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Essex County
0
NY avg
1.1
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Essex County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 36031.

CityPopulation 
North Elba 7,604 View ›
Ticonderoga 4,779 View ›
Moriah 4,629 View ›
Jay 2,567 View ›
Keeseville 2,545 View ›
Chesterfield 2,544 View ›
Lake Placid 2,280 View ›
Willsboro 1,983 View ›
Schroon 1,960 View ›
Crown Point 1,869 View ›
St. Armand 1,701 View ›
Westport 1,385 View ›
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in NY

Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).

#NameYearAgencyAcres
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

About this data

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.