In 2025, fire departments serving Bucyrus responded to 112 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K 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 66% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
854 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 184 | — | |
| 2022 | 212 | +15.2% | |
| 2023 | 167 | -21.2% | |
| 2024 | 179 | +7.2% | |
| 2025 | 112 | -37.4% |
For the 10 building fires Bucyrus departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 189 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 37 | 19.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 24 | 12.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 20 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 15 | 7.9% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 6 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 6 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 6 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 6 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 6 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 58 | 30.7% |
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 Bucyrus mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 44 | 23.3% | |
| 2 | Cigarette lighter | 24 | 12.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 21 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 20 | 10.6% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 12 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Match | 9 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 4.2% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 6 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 27 | 14.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bucyrus departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $14,500 | Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $4,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $30 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bucyrus sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
9 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 10 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 623 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 332 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 171 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 15 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 15 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 10 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 | 47.1 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 | 44820 | 854 |
Six Ohio cities with population within ±25% of Bucyrus. 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.