In 2025, fire departments serving Bluffton responded to 129 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 51% of all calls.
May peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
380 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $16.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 7 | — | |
| 2022* | 41 | — | |
| 2023 | 49 | — | |
| 2024 | 154 | +214.3% | |
| 2025 | 129 | -16.2% |
* Well below Bluffton'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 18 building fires Bluffton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 79 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 | 10 | 12.7% | |
| 2 | Other | 8 | 10.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 7 | 8.9% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 6 | 7.6% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Storage area, other | 3 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 3 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 25 | 31.6% |
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 Bluffton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 28 | 35.4% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 12 | 15.2% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 11 | 13.9% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 5 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 6.3% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 1.3% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 1.3% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 7 | 8.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bluffton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000,000 | Building fires | Catastrophic | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $55,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bluffton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 5 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 135 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 21.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 35 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Recreation and ceremony | 20 | 20.1 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 2.3 mi |
Top 2 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 Bluffton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bluffton.
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.