In 2025, fire departments serving Chesterton responded to 36 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Chesterton's departments reported 36 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 107 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 72% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
535 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $3.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 118 | — | |
| 2022 | 153 | +29.7% | |
| 2023 | 111 | -27.5% | |
| 2024 | 117 | +5.4% | |
| 2025* | 36 | — |
* Well below Chesterton'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 5 building fires Chesterton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 94 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 | 15 | 16.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 11 | 11.7% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 10 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 8 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 4 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 4 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 4 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Equipment or service area, other | 3 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 27 | 28.7% |
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 Chesterton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 37 | 39.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 11 | 11.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 9 | 9.6% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 4 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 3 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 3 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 14 | 14.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Chesterton departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Chesterton sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,590 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 11.8 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 11.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 12.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 10.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 12.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 11.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 11.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 12.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 191 | 11.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 190 | 13.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 187 | 12.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 182 | 9.2 mi |
Top 3 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 Chesterton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Chesterton.
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.