In 2025, fire departments serving Garfield Heights responded to 66 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $80K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Garfield Heights's departments reported 66 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 314 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 71% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,568 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.3M cumulative property loss. 7 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 401 | — | |
| 2022 | 399 | -0.5% | |
| 2023 | 457 | +14.5% | |
| 2024 | 245 | -46.4% | |
| 2025* | 66 | — |
* Well below Garfield Heights'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 18 building fires Garfield Heights departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 351 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 | 92 | 26.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 67 | 19.1% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 41 | 11.7% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 17 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 13 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 12 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 12 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 9 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 8 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 7 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 73 | 20.8% |
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 Garfield Heights mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 173 | 49.3% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 49 | 14.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 20 | 5.7% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 15 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 13 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 11 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 9 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 8 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 7 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 7 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 39 | 11.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Garfield Heights departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $9,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $2,000 | Dumpster or other outside trash receptacle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $750 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $350 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $300 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Garfield Heights sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
20 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 5 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 6 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 6 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 505 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 | 22.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 30 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 25 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 46.1 mi |
Top 5 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 Garfield Heights. 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.