In 2025, fire departments serving East Cleveland responded to 123 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $91K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. East Cleveland's departments reported 123 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 216 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 77% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,081 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $3.4M cumulative property loss. 6 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 219 | — | |
| 2022 | 237 | +8.2% | |
| 2023 | 243 | +2.5% | |
| 2024 | 259 | +6.6% | |
| 2025* | 123 | — |
* Well below East Cleveland'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 29 building fires East Cleveland departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 316 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 | 46 | 14.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 40 | 12.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 29 | 9.2% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 17 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 16 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 16 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 12 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 10 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 10 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 8 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 112 | 35.4% |
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 East Cleveland mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 180 | 57.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 27 | 8.5% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 20 | 6.3% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 16 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 13 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 10 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 8 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Match | 7 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 21 | 6.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by East Cleveland departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 73% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $91,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. East Cleveland sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
15 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 4 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 475 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 30 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 25 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 27.1 mi |
Top 8 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Ohio cities with population within ±25% of East Cleveland. 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.