NYC Just Had Its Worst Year for Brush Fires this Decade

The world seemed ablaze again this week. Another large brush fire struck the New York City area, burning over 100 acres on Long Island over the weekend. The fire, which started with backyard s’mores, comes after a record-setting year for brush fires in New York City, an Untapped New York analysis of FDNY data shows.

With extraordinarily dry conditions persisting since the fall, recently updated fire dispatch data from the Fire Department of New York City, (FDNY) shows that 2024 had the most responses to brush fires of any year since 2016. It’s a troubling sign of what might be to come for New Yorkers as warmer, dryer conditions become more common.

Brush fires were a staple of life in New York in 2024, with several high-profile fires in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Inwood Hill Park in Manhattan, and Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. In all, FDNY responded to 1,200 brush fires in 2024, the most since 2016.

The rise in wildfires has alarmed officials, who banned grilling in parks, formed a new task force to fight brush fires, and have urged New Yorkers to practice caution.

“New Yorkers are facing increased wildfire risks due to the combination of dry conditions and strong winds,” Governor Hochul said in a statement Monday. “As we work tirelessly to combat the fires in Suffolk County, we must all do our part to prevent further damage. I have issued an immediate burn ban across Long Island, New York City, and parts of the Hudson Valley to protect our communities, and our state resources are fully mobilized to support fire suppression efforts.”

Environmental groups and experts have warned that New York faces greater risk from brush fires because of global warming. And according to some reports, the state doesn’t have enough forest rangers and firefighters to fight them.

“The FDNY will need additional resources to respond to the drought-induced fires exacerbated by global warming,” wrote Steven Cohen, Ph.D., Director of the M.S. in Sustainability Management program at Columbia University this fall. “A warming planet exacerbates a wide variety of forms of extreme weather events,” he continued.

In response, the FDNY created a new task force to fight brush fires, which will analyze risk, support firefighting operations, and educate the public. “By creating this task force, we are taking real action to prevent brush fires from occurring, putting protocols in place to keep our members safe while they are in the field, and working to identify the causes of these fires after they happen to keep New Yorkers safe in the future,” said Fire Commissioner Robert S. Tucker.

In addition to safety risks, brush fires cause significant damage to parks and can take years to repair. After a fire burned 2 acres in Prospect Park’s Nethermead area in November, the Prospect Park Alliance said it would take $275,000 and three years to get back to normal.

"This is the new normal of extreme weather. It's not something that we're expecting, but it's something that we all need to be prepared for," New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol told reporters during a news conference at the park in November.

Brush fires also have costly health effects. They reduce air quality and make it dangerous for sensitive groups to breathe outside without a mask.

Not only was 2024 a recent high for brush fires, but the month of November, when New York had over 350 brush fires, was the most since FDNY tracked the data publicly in 2005. Conditions were exceptionally dry in November after the city had its driest October in 155 years. 

And fires continue apace. FDNY responded to 51 brush fires in January 2025, the most in any January since 2016. While precise location data wasn’t available for every fire, Manhattan’s upper peninsula and the north shore of Staten Island were hot spots for brush fire dispatches, with over 50 last year. 

The crisis hasn’t been limited to New York, as extreme weather events intensify across the country. After devastating wildfires caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, displaced tens of thousands, and made Los Angeles look dystopian, leaders across the country urged caution and fire safety and made resources available to aid responding communities.

Officials urge New Yorkers to practice fire safety by avoiding barbeques in parks, staying on designated trails in open spaces, and being wary of smoking or using other high-heat tools near grass.

Be safe out there! Next, read about the fire boxes that you could use to call in a brush fire or how the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 forever changed New York.