In 2025, fire departments serving Fort Wayne responded to 1,723 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 47% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
9,677 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.9M cumulative property loss. 8 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,885 | — | |
| 2022 | 2,304 | +22.2% | |
| 2023 | 1,740 | -24.5% | |
| 2024 | 2,025 | +16.4% | |
| 2025 | 1,723 | -14.9% |
For the 124 building fires Fort Wayne departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,746 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 355 | 12.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 328 | 11.9% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 304 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 221 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 166 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 125 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Other | 104 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 91 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 89 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 78 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 885 | 32.2% |
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 Fort Wayne mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 845 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 349 | 12.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 228 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 219 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 172 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 151 | 5.5% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 116 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 114 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 82 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 81 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 389 | 14.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Fort Wayne departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 94% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $283,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Fort Wayne sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
79 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 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 18 | |
| 40-49 | 22 | |
| 50-59 | 20 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 5 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 5 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 135 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 | 8.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 35 | 20.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Recreation and ceremony | 20 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 23.4 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Fort Wayne.
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.