In 2025, fire departments serving Akron responded to 2,661 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 65% of all calls.
May peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
15,910 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $54.1M cumulative property loss. 28 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3,166 | — | |
| 2022 | 3,274 | +3.4% | |
| 2023 | 3,398 | +3.8% | |
| 2024 | 3,411 | +0.4% | |
| 2025 | 2,661 | -22.0% |
For the 217 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 3,188 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 | Undetermined | 504 | 15.8% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 419 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 362 | 11.4% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 261 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 160 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 142 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 122 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 95 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 93 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 89 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 941 | 29.5% |
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 | 1,442 | 45.2% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 267 | 8.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 246 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 119 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 115 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 114 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 102 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 93 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 90 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 77 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 523 | 16.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Akron departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 47% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $631,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Akron sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
204 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 8 | |
| 10-19 | 9 | |
| 20-29 | 23 | |
| 30-39 | 42 | |
| 40-49 | 36 | |
| 50-59 | 32 | |
| 60-69 | 26 | |
| 70-79 | 19 | |
| 80+ | 6 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,242 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 171 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 78 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 30 | 19.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 25 | 24.9 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 22 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 47.6 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
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.