In 2025, fire departments serving New Washington responded to 13 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 92% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
28 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 4 | -20.0% | |
| 2023* | 2 | — | |
| 2024 | 4 | — | |
| 2025 | 13 | +225.0% |
* Well below New Washington'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 3 building fires New Washington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6 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 | 3 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Storage area, other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 16.7% |
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 Washington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Match | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 16.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. New Washington sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 9 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 608 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 332 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 171 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 22.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 15 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 10 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 | 38.0 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 | 44854 | 28 |
Six Ohio cities with population within ±25% of New Washington. 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.