In 2025, fire departments serving Dearborn responded to 573 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $350K 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 60% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,074 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $14.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,005 | — | |
| 2022 | 724 | -28.0% | |
| 2023 | 977 | +34.9% | |
| 2024 | 795 | -18.6% | |
| 2025 | 573 | -27.9% |
For the 21 building fires Dearborn departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,040 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 162 | 15.6% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 155 | 14.9% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 151 | 14.5% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 118 | 11.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 57 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 47 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 43 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 38 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Other | 29 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 21 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 219 | 21.1% |
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 Dearborn mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 484 | 46.5% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 98 | 9.4% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 98 | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 68 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 44 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 32 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 29 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 27 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 25 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 25 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 110 | 10.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dearborn departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 80% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $350,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $320,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $253,008 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $238,083 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $198,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $141,169 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $130,152 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dearborn 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,233 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 | 20.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 41.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 98 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 77 | 26.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 69 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 50 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 32.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 49 | 23.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 42 | 18.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Recreation and ceremony | 38 | 29.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 30 | 26.3 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.
Six Michigan cities with population within ±25% of Dearborn. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Dearborn.
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.