In 2025, fire departments serving Notre Dame responded to 42 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 62% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
321 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $53K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 70 | — | |
| 2022 | 84 | +20.0% | |
| 2023* | 21 | — | |
| 2024 | 104 | — | |
| 2025 | 42 | -59.6% |
* Well below Notre Dame'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 1 building fires Notre Dame departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 65 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 | 14 | 21.5% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 14 | 21.5% | |
| 3 | Laboratory | 6 | 9.2% | |
| 4 | Corridor, mall | 3 | 4.6% | |
| 5 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 3 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Other | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 14 | 21.5% |
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 Notre Dame mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 15 | 23.1% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 13 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 10.8% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 7 | 10.8% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 4.6% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Notre Dame departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $2,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $200 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Notre Dame sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 13 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 266 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 | 42.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 30 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 25 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 | 46.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 22 | 48.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 16 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 15 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 14 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 12 | 25.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 | 47.0 mi |
Top 5 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 Notre Dame. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Notre Dame.
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.