In 2025, fire departments serving Norton Shores responded to 170 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $800K 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 68% of all calls.
May peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,078 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.9M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 242 | — | |
| 2022 | 264 | +9.1% | |
| 2023 | 291 | +10.2% | |
| 2024* | 111 | — | |
| 2025 | 170 | — |
* Well below Norton Shores'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 17 building fires Norton Shores departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 161 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 26 | 16.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 23 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 17 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 10 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 10 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Other | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 53 | 32.9% |
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 Norton Shores mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 90 | 55.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 13 | 8.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 10 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 7 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 6 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 2 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 6.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Norton Shores departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $800,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $45,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Norton Shores sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,335 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Recreation and ceremony | 910 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 275 | 13.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 175 | 7.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 162 | 33.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 151 | 21.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 150 | 48.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Recreation and ceremony | 107 | 21.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 106 | 25.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 105 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 105 | 32.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 96 | 44.3 mi |
Top 6 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Michigan cities with population within ±25% of Norton Shores. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Norton Shores.
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.