In 2025, fire departments serving Norwalk responded to 149 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K 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 61% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
677 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $885K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 74 | — | |
| 2022 | 86 | — | |
| 2023 | 167 | +94.2% | |
| 2024 | 201 | +20.4% | |
| 2025 | 149 | -25.9% |
* Well below Norwalk'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 14 building fires Norwalk departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 137 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 | 32 | 23.4% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 15 | 10.9% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 14 | 10.2% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 13 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 7 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 7 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 5 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 5 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 4 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 4 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 31 | 22.6% |
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 Norwalk mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 32 | 23.4% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 14 | 10.2% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 14 | 10.2% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 12 | 8.8% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 6.6% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 7 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 7 | 5.1% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 6 | 4.4% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 6 | 4.4% | |
| 10 | Chemical reaction | 6 | 4.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 24 | 17.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Norwalk departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $400 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Norwalk sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
10 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 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 7 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 276 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 171 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 25 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 | 29.7 mi |
Top 4 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 Norwalk. 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.