1. The damage does look like it may be fireblight, but what have you done to confirm that? How do you know that's what it is?

2. Some pictures appear to show very large scale damage throughout the tree. Is this the case or do the pictures make it look worse than it is?

3. Have you contacted your local ag extension office for more info/advice?

I have contacted my local ag extension office and was told that it was indeed fire blight. I think the pictures probably make it look worse than it is; while there is a fair bit of damage to the tree, there's also significant new growth and the larger part of the tree at least outwardly looks healthy.

Looks like oh so many older pear trees that I've seen around old homesteads/farmsteads across The South all of my life. Many of those are 'sand pear' hybrids, like Keiffer, Orient, Pineapple, etc. - and can take major hits from fireblight, shrug it off, and go right on fruiting.
Some years, the canopy will be full of fireblight strikes, but they still manage to fruit heavily enough to break branches.
As widely distributed as the lesions are in your tree, it'd be a quite a JOB getting them all pruned out - and it may not even be necessary. A lot of those old FB-resistant pears, like Keiffer, just sort of arrest the spread and roll on.