In 2025, fire departments serving Gwinn responded to 47 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
209 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $71K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 54 | — | |
| 2022* | 16 | — | |
| 2023 | 52 | — | |
| 2024 | 40 | -23.1% | |
| 2025 | 47 | +17.5% |
* Well below Gwinn'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 0 building fires Gwinn departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 22 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 | 8 | 36.4% | |
| 2 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 3 | 13.6% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Other | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Storage area, other | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Closet | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 10 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 4.5% |
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 Gwinn mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 17 | 77.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 4.5% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Gwinn sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,056 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,625 | 26.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 806 | 17.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 154 | 6.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 103 | 42.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 103 | 19.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 37.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Equipment and vehicle use | 87 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | 85 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Natural | 85 | 36.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 84 | 33.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 25.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 70 | 35.6 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 Gwinn. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Gwinn.
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.