In 2025, fire departments serving Rio Grande responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
37 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $19K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022 | 8 | — | |
| 2023 | 6 | -25.0% | |
| 2024 | 7 | +16.7% | |
| 2025 | 12 | +71.4% |
* Well below Rio Grande'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 4 building fires Rio Grande departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 8 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 | Other | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Office | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 12.5% |
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 Rio Grande mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 37.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 1 | 12.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Rio Grande departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Rio Grande sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 11,562 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,865 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 1,016 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 650 | 49.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 476 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 448 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 400 | 35.7 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 360 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 355 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 310 | 21.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 305 | 47.8 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 Ohio cities with population within ±25% of Rio Grande. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Rio Grande.
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.