In 2025, fire departments serving Rawson responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $70K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 71% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
65 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $305K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 6 | — | |
| 2022 | 8 | — | |
| 2023 | 8 | +0.0% | |
| 2024 | 26 | +225.0% | |
| 2025 | 17 | -34.6% |
* Well below Rawson'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 1 building fires Rawson departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 23 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 | 7 | 30.4% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 5 | 21.7% | |
| 3 | Other | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Closet | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 4.3% |
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 Rawson mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 34.8% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 4.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Rawson departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $70,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $2,500 | Cultivated grain or crop fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Rawson sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 7 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 453 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 332 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 25.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 22 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 11 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 24.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 44.1 mi |
Top 2 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 Rawson. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Rawson.
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.