In 2025, fire departments across New York responded to 113,894 fire and hazmat incidents — including the Great Kills Blowup wildfire that burned 144 acres in 2010.
New York ranks #45 in cumulative acres burned in the NIFC perimeter atlas. Hover any state to compare; click to drill in.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories cover roughly 60% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Dec dips. (Latest year: 2025.)
5-year cumulative seasonality smooths out single-year noise. Jun peaks across the window; Sep dips.
545,332 incidents from 2021 through 2025 across all reporting departments.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 93,575 | |
| 2022 | 131,662 | |
| 2023 | 133,302 | |
| 2024 | 72,899 | |
| 2025 | 113,894 |
For the 6,671 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Combined NFIRS + FPA-FOD totals across the available reporting window. Click a cause to see how it plays out nationwide.
| # | Cause | Incidents | FOD vs NFIRS | Acres | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined / missing | 72,343 | 53,821 / 18,522 | 39,460 | |
| 2 | Arson / incendiarism | 14,350 | 12,881 / 1,469 | 23,450 | |
| 3 | Equipment & vehicle use | 11,419 | 3,764 / 7,655 | 7,451 | |
| 4 | Debris & open burning | 8,699 | 8,699 / 0 | 15,661 | |
| 5 | Natural (lightning) | 7,927 | 7,379 / 548 | 6,962 | |
| 6 | Smoking | 6,566 | 6,566 / 0 | 11,948 | |
| 7 | Recreation & ceremony | 2,648 | 2,648 / 0 | 7,722 | |
| 8 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1,603 | 1,603 / 0 | 1,829 | |
| 9 | Power generation / utility | 1,252 | 1,252 / 0 | 1,249 | |
| 10 | Other causes | 325 | 171 / 154 | 187 | |
| 11 | Railroad operations | 247 | 247 / 0 | 1,174 | |
| 12 | Fireworks | 111 | 111 / 0 | 82 |
Topical groupings of NFIRS incident types — building, cooking, electrical, vehicle, and more. Each links to its national rollup.
| # | Topic | Incidents | Loss | Deaths | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Building fires | 153,294 | $2.3B | 131 | |
| 2 | Gas leaks | 147,283 | $67K | 0 | |
| 3 | Electrical / wiring | 97,171 | $395K | 0 | |
| 4 | Cooking-related | 93,858 | $464K | 0 | |
| 5 | Outdoor fires | 50,719 | $989K | 0 | |
| 6 | Rubbish / refuse | 39,126 | $1.6M | 0 | |
| 7 | Vehicle fires | 11,767 | $31.5M | 27 | |
| 8 | Arson | 7,717 | $8.5M | 1 | |
| 9 | Wildland fires | 6,788 | $428K | 0 |
Largest single-incident property losses statewide in 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 35% of New York's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $7,000,000 | BATAVIA | Building fires | Catastrophic |
| 2 | $5,000,000 | Lake George | Water vehicle fire | Catastrophic |
| 3 | $4,000,000 | FRANKLIN SQUARE | Building fires | Major |
| 4 | $3,000,000 | Schroon Lake | Building fires | Major |
| 5 | $2,000,000 | BUFFALO | Building fires | Major |
| 6 | $1,500,000 | BUFFALO | Building fires | Major |
| 7 | $1,000,000 | Plattsburgh | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major |
| 8 | $1,000,000 | ROSLYN HEIGHTS | Building fires | Major |
| 9 | $1,000,000 | FAYETTEVILLE | Building fires | Major |
| 10 | $1,000,000 | Glens Falls | Building fires | Major |
Per-capita rates let us compare New York apples-to-apples to the national average.
12 largest reporting cities by population.
Top 10 counties by reported NFIRS incidents in 2025.
| # | County | Incidents | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Queens County | 59,226 | 11,027,931 |
| 2 | Westchester County | 5,349 | 1,212,103 |
| 3 | Suffolk County | 4,366 | 2,934,868 |
| 4 | Nassau County | 4,325 | 2,640,192 |
| 5 | Erie County | 3,490 | 992,713 |
| 6 | Orange County | 3,116 | 456,434 |
| 7 | Monroe County | 2,619 | 804,395 |
| 8 | Albany County | 2,026 | 373,022 |
| 9 | Ulster County | 1,647 | 219,364 |
| 10 | Onondaga County | 1,567 | 559,815 |
Top 10 counties by NFIRS incidents per 1,000 residents (population ≥ 50,000). Surfaces signal beyond the mega-counties.
| # | County | Inc / 1k | Incidents | Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oswego County | 11.23 | 1,360 | 121,120 | |
| 2 | Wayne County | 8.83 | 992 | 112,332 | |
| 3 | Steuben County | 8.67 | 832 | 96,009 | |
| 4 | Sullivan County | 8.01 | 810 | 101,113 | |
| 5 | Chemung County | 7.79 | 701 | 90,043 | |
| 6 | Ulster County | 7.51 | 1,647 | 219,364 | |
| 7 | Livingston County | 7.41 | 547 | 73,863 | |
| 8 | Madison County | 7.21 | 588 | 81,523 | |
| 9 | Orange County | 6.83 | 3,116 | 456,434 | |
| 10 | Washington County | 6.79 | 471 | 69,341 |
By incident count in 2025.
By acres burned. Sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.
| # | 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 |
395 perimeters and 1,421 acres recorded since 1900.
| Decade | Fires | Acres | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 4 | 1 | |
| 1980s | 13 | 11 | |
| 1990s | 142 | 427 | |
| 2000s | 128 | 428 | |
| 2010s | 96 | 445 | |
| 2020s | 12 | 109 |
FPA-FOD ignitions by decade, broken down by cause category. Each row sums to the decade's total; the bars show the share each cause contributed.
| Decade | Total fires | Share by cause |
|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 2,777 | |
| 2000s | 51,090 | |
| 2010s | 41,544 | |
| 2020s | 3,731 |
FPA-FOD ignitions by month, all years on record. Distinct from NFIRS — captures unreported wildlands across rural and remote terrain. 99,142 ignitions total.
4,726 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 5-year window. Age and gender are coarse-binned for privacy.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 277 | |
| 10-19 | 167 | |
| 20-29 | 580 | |
| 30-39 | 1,515 | |
| 40-49 | 983 | |
| 50-59 | 550 | |
| 60-69 | 297 | |
| 70-79 | 158 | |
| 80+ | 109 |
State totals reflect incidents reported by fire departments to NFIRS for 2025. The 5-year totals span 2021 through 2025. Wildfire perimeters and decade-by-decade counts are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History service. NFIRS reporting is voluntary, so totals are a strong indicator rather than a complete census.