In 2025, fire departments serving Rochester Hills responded to 300 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 56% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,750 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $5.1M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 373 | — | |
| 2022 | 315 | -15.5% | |
| 2023 | 433 | +37.5% | |
| 2024 | 329 | -24.0% | |
| 2025 | 300 | -8.8% |
For the 23 building fires Rochester Hills departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 427 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 95 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 42 | 9.8% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 38 | 8.9% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 34 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 24 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Other | 20 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 16 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 14 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 13 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 12 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 119 | 27.9% |
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 Rochester Hills mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 179 | 41.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 56 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 45 | 10.5% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 26 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 23 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 19 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 14 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 11 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 9 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 36 | 8.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Rochester Hills departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 82% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $70,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $40,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Rochester Hills sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,388 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 143 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 77 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 64 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 53 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 51 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 50 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 26.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 49 | 4.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 45 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 42 | 43.0 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 Rochester Hills. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Rochester Hills.
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.