In 2025, fire departments serving Barberton responded to 331 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K 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 70% of all calls.
May peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,596 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $3.5M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 340 | — | |
| 2022 | 279 | -17.9% | |
| 2023 | 327 | +17.2% | |
| 2024 | 319 | -2.4% | |
| 2025 | 331 | +3.8% |
For the 34 building fires Barberton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 252 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 46 | 18.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 42 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 23 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 21 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 19 | 7.5% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 14 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 7 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Other | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 65 | 25.8% |
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 Barberton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 114 | 45.2% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 32 | 12.7% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 19 | 7.5% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 17 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 13 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 9 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Match | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 24 | 9.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Barberton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 94% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Barberton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,280 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 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 171 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 78 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 39.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 30 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 30 | 18.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 25 | 18.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 22 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 39.4 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Ohio cities with population within ±25% of Barberton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.