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2025 County Report

Fires in Lewis County, NY

In 2025, fire departments serving Lewis County responded to 204 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $200K property loss.

28,426 residents FIPS 36049 76 cities · 0 fire depts
Total incidents
204
891 across 5 years
Building fires
20
8 wildland
Property loss
$910K
$661K structure · $249K 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 65% of all calls.

204
Total Incidents
Power line down 71 34.8%
Building fires 20 9.8%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 14 6.9%
Carbon monoxide incident 14 6.9%
Hazardous condition, other 13 6.4%
All other categories 72 35.3%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Lewis County?

Feb peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 15
Feb 35
Mar 14
Apr 16
May 11
Jun 35
Jul 6
Aug 12
Sep 14
Oct 22
Nov 20
Dec 4
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Lewis County

891 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 149
2022 161
2023 201
2024 176
2025 204
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 20 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
47%
9
Cause undetermined
26%
5
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
11%
2
Under investigation
16%
3
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $661K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Lewis County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $200,000 ROME OUTSIDE Building fires Significant
2 $100,000 Lowville Building or structure weakened or collapsed Significant
3 $100,000 ROME OUTSIDE Building fires Significant
4 $80,000 greig Building fires Significant
5 $50,000 Lowville Building or structure weakened or collapsed Significant
6 $50,000 Lowville Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
7 $30,000 Lowville Building fires Significant
8 $25,000 Lowville Building fires Significant
9 $25,000 Lowville Building fires Significant
10 $1,000 ROME OUTSIDE Building fires Significant
06 How Lewis County compares

Lewis County vs NY vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

7.18
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Lewis County
7.18
NY avg
3.48
US avg
7.15
0.7
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Lewis County
0.7
NY avg
0.2
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Lewis County
0
NY avg
1.1
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Lewis County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 36049.

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.