In 2025, fire departments serving Richland responded to 73 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $90K 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 71% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
415 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 93 | — | |
| 2022 | 101 | +8.6% | |
| 2023 | 69 | -31.7% | |
| 2024 | 79 | +14.5% | |
| 2025 | 73 | -7.6% |
For the 13 building fires Richland departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 114 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 | 30 | 26.3% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 16 | 14.0% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 7 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 7 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Other | 6 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 4 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 3 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 28 | 24.6% |
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 Richland mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 19 | 16.7% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 14 | 12.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 12 | 10.5% | |
| 4 | Match | 11 | 9.6% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 8 | 7.0% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 6.1% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 7 | 6.1% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 6 | 5.3% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 5 | 4.4% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 4.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 20 | 17.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Richland departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $90,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $18,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $7,000 | Power line down | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $4,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Richland sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
9 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,508 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 | 43.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 150 | 49.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 119 | 22.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 105 | 22.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Smoking | 90 | 29.5 mi | |
| 1995 | Smoking | 71 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 66 | 27.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 57 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 52 | 8.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 51 | 22.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 37.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 25.9 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 Richland. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Richland.
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.