In 2025, fire departments serving Midlothian responded to 165 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 73% of all calls.
May peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
733 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 139 | — | |
| 2022 | 165 | +18.7% | |
| 2023 | 136 | -17.6% | |
| 2024 | 128 | -5.9% | |
| 2025 | 165 | +28.9% |
For the 30 building fires Midlothian departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 103 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 | 39 | 37.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 16 | 15.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 13 | 12.6% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 3.9% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Other | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 7 | Function area, other | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 18 | 17.5% |
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 Midlothian mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 71 | 68.9% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 4.9% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 3.9% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 3 | 2.9% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 3 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Molten, hot material | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 6 | 5.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Midlothian departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Fire in portable building, fixed location | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $3,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $3,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $3,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $2,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Midlothian 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 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. 5,306 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Natural | 600 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 22.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 22.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 24.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 22.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 232 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 21.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 191 | 23.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 190 | 21.2 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 Illinois cities with population within ±25% of Midlothian. 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.