In 2025, fire departments serving Lima responded to 436 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K 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 48% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,643 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $9.5M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 619 | — | |
| 2022 | 577 | -6.8% | |
| 2023 | 426 | -26.2% | |
| 2024 | 585 | +37.3% | |
| 2025 | 436 | -25.5% |
For the 46 building fires Lima departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 896 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 | 137 | 15.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 104 | 11.6% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 85 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 76 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 72 | 8.0% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 33 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 32 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 23 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 23 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 22 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 289 | 32.3% |
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 Lima mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 450 | 50.2% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 78 | 8.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 78 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 41 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 30 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 28 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 21 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Match | 18 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 16 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 16 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 120 | 13.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lima departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 61% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $45,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $40,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $31,600 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,700 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lima sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
32 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 6 | |
| 30-39 | 6 | |
| 40-49 | 5 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 4 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 425 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 332 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 30.4 mi |
Top 9 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 Lima. 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.