In 2025, fire departments serving Ironwood responded to 21 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $35K 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 76% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
128 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $847K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 14 | — | |
| 2022 | 40 | — | |
| 2023 | 33 | -17.5% | |
| 2024 | 20 | -39.4% | |
| 2025 | 21 | +5.0% |
* Well below Ironwood'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 4 building fires Ironwood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 63 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 9 | 14.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 9 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 7.9% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 4 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 4 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 4 | 6.3% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Outside area, other | 3 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 3 | 4.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 16 | 25.4% |
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 Ironwood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 19 | 30.2% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 10 | 15.9% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 12.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 6 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 4 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 4 | 6.3% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 7.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ironwood departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $35,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $8,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ironwood sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,052 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 21.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 80 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 79 | 31.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 72 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 67 | 30.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Recreation and ceremony | 63 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Fireworks | 45 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 45 | 49.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Equipment and vehicle use | 42 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 39 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 38 | 14.1 mi | |
| 1998 | Equipment and vehicle use | 35 | 45.3 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 | 49938 | 128 |
Six Michigan cities with population within ±25% of Ironwood. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Ironwood.
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.