In 2025, fire departments serving Lakewood responded to 547 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Accident, potential accident, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,833 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $4.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 586 | — | |
| 2022 | 475 | -18.9% | |
| 2023 | 520 | +9.5% | |
| 2024 | 705 | +35.6% | |
| 2025 | 547 | -22.4% |
For the 32 building fires Lakewood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 258 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 | 34 | 13.2% | |
| 2 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 25 | 9.7% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 24 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 19 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 17 | 6.6% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 16 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 13 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 11 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 10 | 3.9% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 9 | 3.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 80 | 31.0% |
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 Lakewood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 110 | 42.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 23 | 8.9% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 22 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 21 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 19 | 7.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 11 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 11 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Candle | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Chemical reaction | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 20 | 7.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lakewood departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 79% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Building or structure weakened or collapsed | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lakewood sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
8 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 7 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 515 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 25 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 43.5 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 Lakewood. 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.