In 2025, fire departments serving Huntington responded to 200 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $75K 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 64% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
871 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $2.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 179 | — | |
| 2022 | 167 | -6.7% | |
| 2023 | 172 | +3.0% | |
| 2024 | 153 | -11.0% | |
| 2025 | 200 | +30.7% |
For the 30 building fires Huntington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 262 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 | 36 | 13.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 33 | 12.6% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 29 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 24 | 9.2% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 20 | 7.6% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 12 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 9 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 77 | 29.4% |
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 Huntington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 94 | 35.9% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 28 | 10.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 22 | 8.4% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 17 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 15 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 12 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Match | 10 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 40 | 15.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Huntington departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 79% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $75,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $55,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $35,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $12,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Huntington sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
12 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 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 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 35 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Recreation and ceremony | 20 | 20.1 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 21.7 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 46750 | 871 |
Six Indiana cities with population within ±25% of Huntington. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Huntington.
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.