In 2025, fire departments serving Okemos responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 94% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
50 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $31K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 15 | — | |
| 2022 | 10 | -33.3% | |
| 2023* | 3 | — | |
| 2024* | 5 | — | |
| 2025 | 17 | — |
* Well below Okemos'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 8 building fires Okemos departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3 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 | Interior stairway or ramp | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 33.3% |
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 Okemos mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arcing | 2 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 33.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Okemos sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,913 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 191 | 39.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 143 | 16.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 142 | 14.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 119 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 105 | 39.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 25.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 98 | 40.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 28.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 10.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 | 9.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 61 | 31.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 11.9 mi |
Top 3 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 Okemos. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Okemos.
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.