One in every three structure fires in Syracuse last year occurred in a vacant building—costing the city more than $400,000 and injuring four firefighters, according to a new report from Syracuse City Auditor Alexander Marion.
In his report titled “Following the Fire,” Marion revealed that 25 of the city’s 87 structure fires in 2024 involved vacant properties. Of those, 19 were both vacant and unsecured, posing serious risks to first responders and surrounding neighborhoods. The city was forced to demolish 11 of the buildings, while 13 remain standing and only one has begun to return to productive use.
“Vacant structure fires put firefighters at risk, reduce our available housing supply, and create blight in high-needs neighborhoods,” Marion said in a statement. “This is a scourge on our city we need to more proactively address.”
The report is the most comprehensive examination of the causes, costs, and patterns of vacant structure fires ever conducted in Syracuse, according to Marion. Among the findings:
- Nearly all of the properties involved in fires had inactive water service—some for decades.
- Four out of five were already facing legal action from the city’s Bureau of Administrative Adjudication.
- None were registered in the city’s Vacant Property Registry.
- The average vacant fire drew a response from 49 firefighters, lasted over three hours, and caused an average of $10,000 in costs and $1.12 million in damages overall.
The report also highlights how fragmented data systems hinder coordination among city departments. The City uses multiple incompatible programs—such as AS/400, IPS, Camino, eTAX, and AIMS—none of which share data automatically. This requires manual data entry between systems, resulting in missed warnings and delayed interventions.
To combat the issue, Marion is proposing several commonsense reforms, including:
- An early warning system to identify high-risk properties based on multiple red flags like back taxes, code violations, and utility shutoffs.
- Adoption of FEMA’s “Red X” markings for dangerous vacant buildings to better inform first responders—replacing the city’s current “Unfit” placards.
- Updating the city’s board-up policy to use FEMA’s “Board-and-Brace” method, which makes it harder to break into secured buildings.
“These fires are preventable,” Marion said. “With coordinated data and early intervention, we can save money, preserve housing, and protect public safety.”
The full report is available on the Syracuse City Auditor’s website.
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