In 2025, fire departments serving Manchester responded to 47 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 66% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
370 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $994K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 77 | — | |
| 2022 | 55 | -28.6% | |
| 2023 | 155 | +181.8% | |
| 2024* | 36 | — | |
| 2025 | 47 | — |
* Well below Manchester's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 8 building fires Manchester departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 92 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 | 39 | 42.4% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 12 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 7 | 7.6% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 7 | 7.6% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 14 | 15.2% |
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 Manchester mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 24 | 26.1% | |
| 2 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 12 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 7 | 7.6% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 6 | 6.5% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 6.5% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 5.4% | |
| 9 | Match | 4 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 12 | 13.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Manchester departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $7,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $500 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Manchester sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,782 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 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 143 | 37.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 142 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 30.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 98 | 2.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 15.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 77 | 23.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 69 | 40.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 51 | 37.5 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 Manchester. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Manchester.
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.