In 2025, fire departments serving Ironton responded to 223 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $74K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 73% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,263 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $2.1M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 214 | — | |
| 2022 | 269 | +25.7% | |
| 2023 | 286 | +6.3% | |
| 2024 | 271 | -5.2% | |
| 2025 | 223 | -17.7% |
For the 34 building fires Ironton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 293 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 | 86 | 29.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 27 | 9.2% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 24 | 8.2% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 19 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 15 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 13 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 9 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 9 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 9 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 9 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 73 | 24.9% |
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 Ironton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 168 | 57.3% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 31 | 10.6% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 16 | 5.5% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 16 | 5.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 15 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 2.0% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 6 | 2.0% | |
| 8 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 6 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 4 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 22 | 7.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ironton departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 68% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $74,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,930 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $8,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ironton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
17 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 32,579 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,865 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,200 | 47.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,090 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,934 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,739 | 46.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,678 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,640 | 47.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,624 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,500 | 46.3 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,314 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 1,016 | 34.2 mi |
Top 6 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 Ironton. 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.