In 2025, fire departments serving Akron responded to 42 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $12K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
133 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $120K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 13 | — | |
| 2022 | 36 | — | |
| 2023 | 22 | -38.9% | |
| 2024 | 20 | -9.1% | |
| 2025 | 42 | +110.0% |
* Well below Akron's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 3 building fires Akron departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 12 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Structural area, other | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 8.3% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Akron mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 8.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Akron departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $12,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $6,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Akron sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 17 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 549 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Smoking | 145 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 88 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 48 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 42 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 46.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 25 | 46.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 49.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 20 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 19 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 16 | 11.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 13 | 47.8 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 14001 | 133 |
Six New York cities with population within ±25% of Akron. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Akron.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 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. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.