In 2025, fire departments serving Elyria responded to 523 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 62% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,119 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $5.5M cumulative property loss. 10 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 592 | — | |
| 2022 | 648 | +9.5% | |
| 2023 | 579 | -10.6% | |
| 2024 | 777 | +34.2% | |
| 2025 | 523 | -32.7% |
For the 66 building fires Elyria departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 804 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 | Outside area, other | 136 | 16.9% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 124 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 90 | 11.2% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 67 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 59 | 7.3% | |
| 6 | Other | 33 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 25 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 20 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 19 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 19 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 212 | 26.4% |
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 Elyria mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 392 | 48.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 67 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 40 | 5.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 38 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 38 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 31 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 28 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 19 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Match | 18 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 15 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 118 | 14.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Elyria departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 82% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $35,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Elyria sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
39 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 | 6 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 8 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 6 | |
| 70-79 | 5 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 7 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 666 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 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 171 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 25 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 33.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 31.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 31.2 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 Elyria. 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.