In 2025, fire departments serving Lorain responded to 610 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $347K 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 59% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,030 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $6.0M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 857 | — | |
| 2022 | 815 | -4.9% | |
| 2023 | 864 | +6.0% | |
| 2024 | 884 | +2.3% | |
| 2025 | 610 | -31.0% |
For the 46 building fires Lorain departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,163 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 | Outside area, other | 301 | 25.9% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 175 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 157 | 13.5% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 97 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 69 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 39 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 32 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Other | 31 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 23 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 22 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 217 | 18.7% |
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 Lorain mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 662 | 56.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 72 | 6.2% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 70 | 6.0% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 69 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 40 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 29 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 27 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 27 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 24 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 19 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 124 | 10.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lorain departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 89% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $346,800 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $146,800 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $89,900 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $76,250 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $65,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $54,540 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $40,300 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lorain sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
27 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 | 6 | |
| 30-39 | 6 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 7 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 505 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 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 25 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 | 46.8 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 Lorain. 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.