In 2025, fire departments serving Borden responded to 25 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $45K 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 56% of all calls.
May peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
115 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $121K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 12 | — | |
| 2022 | 32 | — | |
| 2023 | 27 | -15.6% | |
| 2024 | 19 | -29.6% | |
| 2025 | 25 | +31.6% |
* Well below Borden'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 6 building fires Borden departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 28 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 | 15 | 53.6% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 3 | 10.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Wall assembly | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 3.6% |
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 Borden mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 13 | 46.4% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 4 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 3 | 10.7% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Match | 2 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Lightning | 1 | 3.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Borden departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $45,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Borden sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,535 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 870 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 450 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 354 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 280 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 32.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 220 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 200 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 182 | 41.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 157 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 144 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 46.6 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 | 47106 | 115 |
Six Indiana cities with population within ±25% of Borden. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Borden.
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.