In 2025, fire departments serving Kalamazoo responded to 1,812 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $903K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
8,890 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $15.2M cumulative property loss. 6 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,634 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,630 | -0.2% | |
| 2023 | 2,123 | +30.2% | |
| 2024 | 1,691 | -20.3% | |
| 2025 | 1,812 | +7.2% |
For the 232 building fires Kalamazoo departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,425 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 268 | 18.8% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 176 | 12.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 123 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 71 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 57 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 56 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 51 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 49 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 46 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 42 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 486 | 34.1% |
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 Kalamazoo mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 654 | 45.9% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 155 | 10.9% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 94 | 6.6% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 81 | 5.7% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 53 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 53 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 52 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 48 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 33 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 26 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 176 | 12.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Kalamazoo departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 63% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $902,817 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $315,200 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $124,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $115,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kalamazoo sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
60 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 | 4 | |
| 20-29 | 12 | |
| 30-39 | 15 | |
| 40-49 | 20 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,376 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 154 | 41.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 119 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 105 | 29.8 mi | |
| 1993 | Smoking | 90 | 30.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 71 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 66 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 57 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 52 | 18.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 51 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 34.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 43 | 35.7 mi |
Top 10 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 Kalamazoo. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Kalamazoo.
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.