In 2025, fire departments serving Rensselaer County responded to 749 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $600K property loss.
Power line down lead by count. Top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Apr dips.
4,870 incidents from 2021 through 2025.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 829 | |
| 2022 | 989 | |
| 2023 | 1,430 | |
| 2024 | 873 | |
| 2025 | 749 |
For the 73 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Largest single-incident property losses in Rensselaer County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $600,000 | Troy | Building fires | Major |
| 2 | $185,000 | Rensselaer | Building fires | Significant |
| 3 | $100,000 | Poestenkill | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant |
| 4 | $100,000 | Rensselaer | Building fires | Significant |
| 5 | $80,000 | Rensselaer | Building fires | Significant |
| 6 | $75,000 | Nassau | Building fires | Significant |
| 7 | $50,000 | East Greenbush | Building fires | Significant |
| 8 | $25,000 | Poestenkill | Building fires | Significant |
| 9 | $10,000 | Troy | Building fires | Significant |
| 10 | $7,000 | TROY | Building or structure weakened or collapsed | Significant |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.
12 cities mapped to FIPS 36083.
| City | Population | |
|---|---|---|
| Troy | 51,268 | View › |
| East Greenbush | 16,680 | View › |
| North Greenbush | 13,263 | View › |
| Schodack | 12,956 | View › |
| Brunswick | 12,542 | View › |
| Rensselaer | 9,252 | View › |
| Sand Lake | 8,360 | View › |
| Schaghticoke | 7,414 | View › |
| Hoosick | 6,713 | View › |
| Pittstown | 5,540 | View › |
| Hampton Manor | 5,344 | View › |
| Nassau | 4,555 | 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.