In 2025, fire departments serving Madison Heights responded to 247 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K 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 64% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,257 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $2.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 260 | — | |
| 2022 | 236 | -9.2% | |
| 2023 | 274 | +16.1% | |
| 2024 | 240 | -12.4% | |
| 2025 | 247 | +2.9% |
For the 23 building fires Madison Heights departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 335 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 | 55 | 16.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 53 | 15.8% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 34 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 21 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 21 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 19 | 5.7% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 15 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 10 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 9 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 8 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 90 | 26.9% |
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 Madison Heights mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 199 | 59.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 23 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 16 | 4.8% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 15 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 15 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 11 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 11 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 5 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 23 | 6.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Madison Heights departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 84% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Special outside fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $9,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Madison Heights sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
10 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 5 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,234 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 77 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 64 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 53 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 49 | 9.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 42 | 32.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Recreation and ceremony | 38 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 37 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 33 | 39.3 mi |
Top 2 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 Madison Heights. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Madison Heights.
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.