In 2025, fire departments serving Battle Creek responded to 363 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.5M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Battle Creek's departments reported 363 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 914 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Hazardous condition, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 79% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,568 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $11.0M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,064 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,138 | +7.0% | |
| 2023 | 1,266 | +11.2% | |
| 2024 | 737 | -41.8% | |
| 2025* | 363 | — |
* Well below Battle Creek'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 27 building fires Battle Creek departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,077 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 | 155 | 14.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 131 | 12.2% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 130 | 12.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 102 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 69 | 6.4% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 30 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 28 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 28 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 27 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 27 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 350 | 32.5% |
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 Battle Creek mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 496 | 46.1% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 82 | 7.6% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 69 | 6.4% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 52 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 51 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 50 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 48 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 33 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 31 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 26 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 139 | 12.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Battle Creek departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,500,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $270,400 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $2,599 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Battle Creek sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
37 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 | 4 | |
| 20-29 | 6 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 10 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 4 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,398 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 154 | 33.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 119 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 105 | 11.4 mi | |
| 1993 | Smoking | 90 | 41.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 71 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 66 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 57 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 52 | 10.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 51 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 49.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 43 | 26.9 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 Michigan cities with population within ±25% of Battle Creek. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Battle Creek.
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.