In 2025, fire departments serving Dearborn Heights responded to 319 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K 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 68% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,995 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $3.9M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 367 | — | |
| 2022 | 407 | +10.9% | |
| 2023 | 568 | +39.6% | |
| 2024 | 334 | -41.2% | |
| 2025 | 319 | -4.5% |
For the 32 building fires Dearborn Heights departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 518 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 | 144 | 27.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 94 | 18.1% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 75 | 14.5% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 35 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Other | 19 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 19 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 15 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 11 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 9 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 9 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 88 | 17.0% |
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 Dearborn Heights mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 392 | 75.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 33 | 6.4% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 19 | 3.7% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 15 | 2.9% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 14 | 2.7% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 2.1% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 1.2% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 1.0% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 4 | 0.8% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 0.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 16 | 3.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dearborn Heights departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 72% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dearborn Heights sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
9 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,443 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 21.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 143 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 38.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 98 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 77 | 24.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 69 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 51 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 50 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 49 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 45 | 47.6 mi |
Top 7 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 Dearborn Heights. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Dearborn Heights.
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.