In 2025, fire departments serving Battle Creek responded to 16 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
54 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $333K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 7 | — | |
| 2022 | 15 | +114.3% | |
| 2023* | 5 | — | |
| 2024 | 11 | — | |
| 2025 | 16 | +45.5% |
* 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 3 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 16 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 | Outside area, other | 4 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Function area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 6.2% |
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 | 5 | 31.2% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 9 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 6.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Battle Creek departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $450 | Cultivated vegetation, crop fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Battle Creek sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,621 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 2,464 | 49.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,700 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,100 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 1,000 | 19.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 700 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 700 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 5.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Natural | 240 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 217 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 33.1 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 | 68715 | 54 |
Six Nebraska cities with population within ±25% of Battle Creek. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 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.