In 2025, fire departments serving Farmington Hills responded to 534 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.5M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,248 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $17.1M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 809 | — | |
| 2022 | 564 | -30.3% | |
| 2023 | 746 | +32.3% | |
| 2024 | 595 | -20.2% | |
| 2025 | 534 | -10.3% |
For the 33 building fires Farmington Hills departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 629 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 | 106 | 16.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 82 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 70 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 43 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 36 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Other | 28 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 26 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 22 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 21 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 18 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 177 | 28.1% |
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 Farmington Hills mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 235 | 37.4% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 100 | 15.9% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 87 | 13.8% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 39 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 37 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 22 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 20 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 11 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 10 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 10 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 58 | 9.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Farmington Hills departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 79% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $750,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $276,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Farmington Hills sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
37 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 | 3 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 14 | |
| 30-39 | 9 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 3 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,804 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 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 143 | 39.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 142 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 29.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 98 | 40.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 77 | 32.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 64 | 44.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 53 | 48.0 mi |
Top 6 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 Farmington Hills. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Farmington Hills.
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.