In 2025, fire departments serving Marion responded to 540 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 71% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,614 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $4.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 535 | — | |
| 2022* | 275 | — | |
| 2023 | 660 | — | |
| 2024 | 604 | -8.5% | |
| 2025 | 540 | -10.6% |
* Well below Marion'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 95 building fires Marion departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 443 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 62 | 14.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 55 | 12.4% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 48 | 10.8% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 34 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 34 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 26 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 17 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 13 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 12 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Other | 11 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 131 | 29.6% |
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 Marion mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 181 | 40.9% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 42 | 9.5% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 38 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 27 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 25 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 23 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 18 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 14 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 11 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 10 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 54 | 12.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Marion departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 60% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $110,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $91,815 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $85,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Marion sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 6 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 568 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 | 8.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 171 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 15 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 10 | 47.4 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 Ohio cities with population within ±25% of Marion. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Marion.
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.