In 2025, fire departments serving Dayton responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
51 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $26K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 12 | — | |
| 2022* | 5 | — | |
| 2023 | 9 | — | |
| 2024 | 13 | +44.4% | |
| 2025 | 12 | -7.7% |
* Well below Dayton'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 3 building fires Dayton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 17 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 | Outside area, other | 3 | 17.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 17.6% | |
| 3 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 4 | Assembly or sales area, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 10 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 17.6% |
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 Dayton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 17.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 17.6% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 9 | Candle | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 10 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 5.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dayton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,899 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 700 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 328 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 16.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 105 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Natural | 100 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 90 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 85 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 38.9 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 | 50530 | 51 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Dayton. 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.