In 2025, fire departments serving Fowler responded to 23 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K 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 78% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
72 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $331K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 12 | — | |
| 2022 | 15 | +25.0% | |
| 2023* | 8 | — | |
| 2024 | 14 | — | |
| 2025 | 23 | +64.3% |
* Well below Fowler'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 4 building fires Fowler departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | 3 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Fowler mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 1 | 14.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Fowler departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Fowler sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,049 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 | 191 | 12.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 150 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 143 | 39.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 142 | 40.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 119 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 105 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 49.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 92 | 39.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 23.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 | 34.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 70 | 33.9 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 Michigan cities with population within ±25% of Fowler. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Fowler.
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.