In 2025, fire departments serving Saginaw responded to 2,186 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $300K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
9,012 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $14.0M cumulative property loss. 14 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,540 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,587 | +3.1% | |
| 2023 | 1,145 | -27.9% | |
| 2024 | 2,554 | +123.1% | |
| 2025 | 2,186 | -14.4% |
For the 172 building fires Saginaw departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,039 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 | 449 | 22.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 221 | 10.8% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 153 | 7.5% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 131 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 130 | 6.4% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 77 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 75 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 72 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 69 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 69 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 593 | 29.1% |
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 Saginaw mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 909 | 44.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 337 | 16.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 160 | 7.8% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 105 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 79 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 54 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 54 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Radiated heat from another fire | 54 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 42 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 37 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 208 | 10.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Saginaw departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 41% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $225,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $90,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Saginaw sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
63 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 11 | |
| 30-39 | 13 | |
| 40-49 | 8 | |
| 50-59 | 6 | |
| 60-69 | 5 | |
| 70-79 | 8 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,958 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 335 | 17.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Recreation and ceremony | 289 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 257 | 39.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 49.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 202 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Natural | 186 | 31.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 178 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Recreation and ceremony | 155 | 31.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | 97 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 92 | 40.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 70 | 39.1 mi |
Top 10 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 Saginaw. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Saginaw.
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.