In 2025, fire departments serving Ferndale responded to 30 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Ferndale's departments reported 30 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 180 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 80% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
900 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $1.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 235 | — | |
| 2022 | 224 | -4.7% | |
| 2023 | 202 | -9.8% | |
| 2024 | 209 | +3.5% | |
| 2025* | 30 | — |
* Well below Ferndale'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 7 building fires Ferndale departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 160 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 | 42 | 26.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 21 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 17 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 9 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 8 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 6 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Other | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 35 | 21.9% |
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 Ferndale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 56 | 35.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 37 | 23.1% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 24 | 15.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 9 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 2 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 13 | 8.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ferndale departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,792 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $200 | Dumpster or other outside trash receptacle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ferndale sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,247 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 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 77 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 64 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 53 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 50 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 49 | 13.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 42 | 29.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Recreation and ceremony | 38 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 33 | 42.9 mi |
Top 3 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 Ferndale. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Ferndale.
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.