In 2025, fire departments serving Mason responded to 132 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 72% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
742 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 136 | — | |
| 2022 | 141 | +3.7% | |
| 2023 | 173 | +22.7% | |
| 2024 | 160 | -7.5% | |
| 2025 | 132 | -17.5% |
For the 28 building fires Mason departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 162 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 | 36 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 17 | 10.5% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 15 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 13 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 12 | 7.4% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 12 | 7.4% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Storage area, other | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Function area, other | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 39 | 24.1% |
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 Mason mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 62 | 38.3% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 22 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 20 | 12.3% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 18 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 16 | 9.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mason departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $4,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mason sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,913 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 191 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 143 | 19.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 142 | 8.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 119 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 105 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 25.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 98 | 33.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 21.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 18.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 | 11.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 61 | 39.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 19.4 mi |
Top 7 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 Mason. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Mason.
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.