In 2025, fire departments serving Mellen responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3K 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 100% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
39 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $118K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 9 | — | |
| 2022 | 10 | +11.1% | |
| 2023 | 9 | -10.0% | |
| 2024* | 1 | — | |
| 2025 | 10 | — |
* Well below Mellen'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 4 building fires Mellen departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | Undetermined | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 2 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Conveyor | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Machinery room or area; elevator machinery room | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Structural area, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 10 | Wall assembly | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 15.4% |
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 Mellen mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 38.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 5 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 1 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mellen departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,000 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mellen sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,725 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,167 | 25.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 258 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 5.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Natural | 100 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 80 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 79 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 79 | 28.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Smoking | 70 | 36.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 67 | 32.0 mi | |
| 1998 | Recreation and ceremony | 63 | 27.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 61 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 53 | 40.7 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 Wisconsin cities with population within ±25% of Mellen. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Mellen.
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.