In 2025, fire departments serving Lansing responded to 1,330 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
May peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
6,744 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $34.6M cumulative property loss. 10 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,171 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,180 | +0.8% | |
| 2023 | 1,614 | +36.8% | |
| 2024 | 1,449 | -10.2% | |
| 2025 | 1,330 | -8.2% |
For the 116 building fires Lansing departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,912 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 | 306 | 16.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 251 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 173 | 9.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 162 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 93 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 90 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Other | 69 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 64 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 58 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 55 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 591 | 30.9% |
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 Lansing mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 992 | 51.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 147 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 124 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 84 | 4.4% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 81 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 66 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 59 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 48 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 45 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 34 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 232 | 12.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lansing departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 37% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $131,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lansing sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
89 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 | 4 | |
| 10-19 | 4 | |
| 20-29 | 14 | |
| 30-39 | 27 | |
| 40-49 | 17 | |
| 50-59 | 7 | |
| 60-69 | 11 | |
| 70-79 | 5 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,031 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 191 | 33.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 150 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 143 | 23.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 142 | 19.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 119 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 105 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 32.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 98 | 44.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 32.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 14.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 | 16.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 61 | 30.2 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 Lansing. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
4 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Lansing.
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.