In 2025, fire departments serving Portage responded to 397 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $180K 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 61% of all calls.
May peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,165 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $5.2M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 361 | — | |
| 2022 | 417 | +15.5% | |
| 2023 | 479 | +14.9% | |
| 2024 | 511 | +6.7% | |
| 2025 | 397 | -22.3% |
For the 37 building fires Portage departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 359 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 | 89 | 24.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 51 | 14.2% | |
| 3 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 18 | 5.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 16 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Exterior, exposed surface | 15 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 12 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 11 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 11 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Undetermined | 11 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 10 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 115 | 32.0% |
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 Portage mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 100 | 27.9% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 73 | 20.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 45 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 20 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 17 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 15 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 13 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 8 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 8 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 52 | 14.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Portage departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 78% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $180,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $160,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $160,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Portage sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
15 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 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,376 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 154 | 38.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 119 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 105 | 31.1 mi | |
| 1993 | Smoking | 90 | 35.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 71 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 66 | 28.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 57 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 52 | 21.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 51 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 37.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 43 | 40.0 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 Michigan cities with population within ±25% of Portage. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Portage.
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.