In 2025, fire departments serving Parma responded to 632 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 72% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,590 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $7.4M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 677 | — | |
| 2022 | 677 | +0.0% | |
| 2023 | 717 | +5.9% | |
| 2024 | 887 | +23.7% | |
| 2025 | 632 | -28.7% |
For the 43 building fires Parma departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 671 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 | 175 | 26.1% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 153 | 22.8% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 41 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 35 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 25 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Other | 24 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 24 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 20 | 3.0% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 19 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 13 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 142 | 21.2% |
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 Parma mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 242 | 36.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 67 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 57 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 34 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 29 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 27 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 26 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 25 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Arcing | 24 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 22 | 3.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 118 | 17.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Parma departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 80% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Parma sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
22 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 8 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 545 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 30 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 25 | 37.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 39.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 40.0 mi |
Top 10 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 Parma. 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.