In 2025, fire departments serving Houghton responded to 68 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $300K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Jan peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
166 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $4.1M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 27 | — | |
| 2022 | 34 | +25.9% | |
| 2023 | 28 | -17.6% | |
| 2024* | 9 | — | |
| 2025 | 68 | — |
* Well below Houghton'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 6 building fires Houghton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 30 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 | 7 | 23.3% | |
| 2 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 8 | Interior stairway or ramp | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Laboratory | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 4 | 13.3% |
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 Houghton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 11 | 36.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 7 | 23.3% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Candle | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 3.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Houghton departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Commercial Compactor fire, confined to rubbish | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Houghton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 24 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,455 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 1,127 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 700 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 3.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 388 | 14.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Equipment and vehicle use | 148 | 22.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 119 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 106 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 62 | 50.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 58 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Fireworks | 43 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 38 | 41.7 mi |
Top 2 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 Houghton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Houghton.
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.