In 2025, fire departments serving Kettering responded to 464 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K 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 76% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,192 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $3.6M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 386 | — | |
| 2022 | 418 | +8.3% | |
| 2023 | 387 | -7.4% | |
| 2024 | 537 | +38.8% | |
| 2025 | 464 | -13.6% |
For the 19 building fires Kettering departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 250 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 | 33 | 13.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 30 | 12.0% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 25 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 23 | 9.2% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 21 | 8.4% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 10 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 9 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 8 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 8 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 73 | 29.2% |
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 Kettering mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 76 | 30.4% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 26 | 10.4% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 22 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 16 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 15 | 6.0% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 14 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 14 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Chemical reaction | 13 | 5.2% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 11 | 4.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 8 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 35 | 14.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Kettering departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 90% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $85,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $60,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kettering sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
23 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 3 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 4 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 175 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 125 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 27.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 42.4 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 Ohio cities with population within ±25% of Kettering. 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.