In 2025, fire departments serving Piqua responded to 188 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $700K 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 56% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,215 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.5M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 274 | — | |
| 2022 | 285 | +4.0% | |
| 2023 | 246 | -13.7% | |
| 2024 | 222 | -9.8% | |
| 2025 | 188 | -15.3% |
For the 34 building fires Piqua departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 259 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 45 | 17.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 30 | 11.6% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 28 | 10.8% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 21 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 15 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 13 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 10 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 9 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Exterior, exposed surface | 7 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 75 | 29.0% |
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 Piqua mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 122 | 47.1% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 25 | 9.7% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 19 | 7.3% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 13 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 9 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 8 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 6 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 36 | 13.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Piqua departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 92% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $700,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $106,200 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Piqua 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 2 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 40 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 17.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 30.8 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 Piqua. 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.