In 2025, fire departments serving New Knoxville responded to 24 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $700K 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 83% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
81 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $2.8M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 11 | — | |
| 2022* | 8 | — | |
| 2023 | 17 | — | |
| 2024 | 21 | +23.5% | |
| 2025 | 24 | +14.3% |
* Well below New Knoxville'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 12 building fires New Knoxville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 35 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 | 20 | 57.1% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 11.4% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 2 | 5.7% | |
| 4 | Other | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 5 | Function area, other | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Technical processing areas, other | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Chute; laundry or mail, excluding trash chutes | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 5.7% |
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 New Knoxville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 26 | 74.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 5.7% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 5.7% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 5 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Fireworks | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Match | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 2.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by New Knoxville departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $700,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Aircraft fire | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $275,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. New Knoxville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 4 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 60 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 48.3 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 Ohio cities with population within ±25% of New Knoxville. 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.