In 2025, fire departments serving Pinckney responded to 73 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $80K 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 66% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
510 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $1.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 160 | — | |
| 2022 | 123 | -23.1% | |
| 2023 | 111 | -9.8% | |
| 2024* | 43 | — | |
| 2025 | 73 | — |
* Well below Pinckney'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 Pinckney departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 74 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 | Outside area, other | 10 | 13.5% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 7 | 9.5% | |
| 3 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 7 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Other | 6 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 6 | 8.1% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 5.4% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 5.4% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 5.4% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 4.1% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 2 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 21 | 28.4% |
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 Pinckney mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 22 | 29.7% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 12 | 16.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 6 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 3 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 2 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 14.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Pinckney departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $22,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Pinckney sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,835 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 143 | 17.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 142 | 18.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 9.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 98 | 19.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 17.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 40.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 77 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 | 20.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 51 | 17.9 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 Pinckney. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Pinckney.
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.