In 2025, fire departments serving Columbus responded to 4,482 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.4M 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 50% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
27,942 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $107.5M cumulative property loss. 39 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 6,132 | — | |
| 2022 | 5,571 | -9.1% | |
| 2023 | 5,690 | +2.1% | |
| 2024 | 6,067 | +6.6% | |
| 2025 | 4,482 | -26.1% |
For the 533 building fires Columbus departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7,222 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 | 1,243 | 17.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1,062 | 14.7% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 953 | 13.2% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 540 | 7.5% | |
| 5 | Other | 318 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 280 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 246 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 235 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 187 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 179 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,979 | 27.4% |
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 Columbus mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3,656 | 50.6% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 646 | 8.9% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 553 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 506 | 7.0% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 303 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 256 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 220 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 158 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 146 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 112 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 666 | 9.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Columbus departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 26% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,441,400 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,441,400 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Columbus sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
341 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 | 6 | |
| 10-19 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 25 | |
| 30-39 | 58 | |
| 40-49 | 63 | |
| 50-59 | 86 | |
| 60-69 | 21 | |
| 70-79 | 5 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,488 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 355 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 332 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 280 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 31.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 35 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 24 | 18.2 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
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.