In 2025, fire departments serving East Palestine responded to 49 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $12K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
365 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $589K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 43 | — | |
| 2022 | 54 | — | |
| 2023 | 137 | +153.7% | |
| 2024 | 82 | -40.1% | |
| 2025 | 49 | -40.2% |
* Well below East Palestine'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 6 building fires East Palestine departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 53 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 | 11 | 20.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 8 | 15.1% | |
| 3 | Other | 6 | 11.3% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 6 | 11.3% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 7.5% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 5.7% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 5.7% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 2 | 3.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 6 | 11.3% |
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 Palestine mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 27 | 50.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 6 | 11.3% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 3 | 5.7% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Match | 2 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Arcing | 1 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 9.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by East Palestine departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $12,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. East Palestine sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
60 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 19 | |
| 30-39 | 12 | |
| 40-49 | 15 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,502 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 342 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 152 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 106 | 13.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 78 | 17.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 39.0 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 48 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 47 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 45 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 41 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 38 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 35 | 23.8 mi |
Top 4 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 Palestine. 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.