In 2025, fire departments serving Anderson responded to 709 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $247K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,230 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $10.6M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 208 | — | |
| 2022 | 621 | — | |
| 2023 | 795 | +28.0% | |
| 2024 | 897 | +12.8% | |
| 2025 | 709 | -21.0% |
* Well below Anderson'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 89 building fires Anderson departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,204 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 | 318 | 26.4% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 190 | 15.8% | |
| 3 | Other | 176 | 14.6% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 81 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 67 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 55 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 32 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 23 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 20 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Wall assembly | 16 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 226 | 18.8% |
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 Anderson mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 685 | 56.9% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 116 | 9.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 61 | 5.1% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 60 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 42 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 39 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 36 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 24 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 23 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 19 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 99 | 8.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Anderson departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 40% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $246,600 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $120,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $89,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Anderson sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
16 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 1 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 20 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Recreation and ceremony | 20 | 36.0 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.
Six Indiana cities with population within ±25% of Anderson. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Anderson.
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.