In 2025, fire departments serving Matamoras responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
36 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $308K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 6 | — | |
| 2024 | 13 | +116.7% | |
| 2025 | 17 | +30.8% |
* Well below Matamoras'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 2 building fires Matamoras departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 11 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 | 4 | 36.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 6 | Fuel tank, fuel line | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 9.1% |
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 Matamoras mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 36.4% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 9.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Matamoras sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,976 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 147 | 13.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 36.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Equipment and vehicle use | 125 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 121 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 27.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 109 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 102 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 25.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 75 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 71 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 | 15.1 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 45767 | 36 |
Six Ohio cities with population within ±25% of Matamoras. 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.