In 2025, fire departments serving Village of Clarkston responded to 171 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M 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 61% of all calls.
Dec peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,009 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $5.8M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 265 | — | |
| 2022 | 236 | -10.9% | |
| 2023 | 163 | -30.9% | |
| 2024 | 174 | +6.7% | |
| 2025 | 171 | -1.7% |
For the 10 building fires Village of Clarkston departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 157 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 27 | 17.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 19 | 12.1% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 14 | 8.9% | |
| 4 | Wall surface: exterior | 8 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 8 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 7 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 6 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Other | 5 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 53 | 33.8% |
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 Village of Clarkston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 63 | 40.1% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 20 | 12.7% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 16 | 10.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 10 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 6 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 15 | 9.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Village of Clarkston departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $450,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $55,835 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Village of Clarkston sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,406 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 143 | 34.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 142 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 28.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 77 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 64 | 28.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 53 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 51 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 50 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 14.3 mi |
Top 5 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Michigan cities with population within ±25% of Village of Clarkston. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Village of Clarkston.
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.