In 2025, fire departments serving Dayton responded to 50 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3K 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 54% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
249 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $332K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 59 | — | |
| 2022 | 62 | +5.1% | |
| 2023 | 58 | -6.5% | |
| 2024* | 20 | — | |
| 2025 | 50 | — |
* 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 7 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 52 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 | 9 | 17.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 7 | 13.5% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 5 | 9.6% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 9.6% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 3 | 5.8% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Wall assembly | 2 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 3.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 12 | 23.1% |
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 | 24 | 46.2% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 6 | 11.5% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 9.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 5 | 9.6% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 1 | 1.9% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 9.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dayton departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $2,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
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. 439,917 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Natural | 109,259 | 12.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 80,212 | 20.0 mi | |
| 2005 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 52,000 | 15.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25,000 | 22.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 22,000 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 21,620 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17,420 | 38.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,500 | 11.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,453 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,375 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,168 | 17.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 8,480 | 42.6 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Washington cities with population within ±25% of Dayton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Dayton.
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.