In 2025, fire departments serving Dayton responded to 2,323 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
12,124 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $24.7M cumulative property loss. 22 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,120 | — | |
| 2022 | 2,323 | +9.6% | |
| 2023 | 2,276 | -2.0% | |
| 2024 | 3,082 | +35.4% | |
| 2025 | 2,323 | -24.6% |
For the 396 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 4,050 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 | 547 | 13.5% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 504 | 12.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 502 | 12.4% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 435 | 10.7% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 247 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 157 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 156 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Other | 134 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 127 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 125 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,116 | 27.6% |
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 | Undetermined | 2,039 | 50.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 261 | 6.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 249 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 234 | 5.8% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 181 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 166 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 124 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Match | 103 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 97 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 78 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 518 | 12.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dayton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 18% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $115,896 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dayton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
131 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 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 24 | |
| 40-49 | 14 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 6 | |
| 70-79 | 3 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 3 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 50 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 23.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 27.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 48.8 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.