In 2025, fire departments serving Mishawaka responded to 443 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $230K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 64% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,460 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.9M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 510 | — | |
| 2022 | 475 | -6.9% | |
| 2023 | 526 | +10.7% | |
| 2024 | 506 | -3.8% | |
| 2025 | 443 | -12.5% |
For the 67 building fires Mishawaka departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 857 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 145 | 16.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 128 | 14.9% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 108 | 12.6% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 84 | 9.8% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 71 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 27 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Other | 25 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 21 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 19 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 18 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 211 | 24.6% |
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 Mishawaka mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 479 | 55.9% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 65 | 7.6% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 34 | 4.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 31 | 3.6% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 27 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 24 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 23 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 19 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 19 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 18 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 118 | 13.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mishawaka departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $230,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $180,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mishawaka sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
91 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 11 | |
| 30-39 | 38 | |
| 40-49 | 25 | |
| 50-59 | 14 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 10 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 220 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 47 | 45.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 30 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 25 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 | 48.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 16 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 24.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 15 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 12 | 22.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10 | 43.2 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 Indiana cities with population within ±25% of Mishawaka. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Mishawaka.
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.