In 2025, fire departments serving Seymour responded to 172 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M 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 56% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
938 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $4.8M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 169 | — | |
| 2022 | 190 | +12.4% | |
| 2023 | 213 | +12.1% | |
| 2024 | 194 | -8.9% | |
| 2025 | 172 | -11.3% |
For the 31 building fires Seymour departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 200 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 | 45 | 22.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 27 | 13.5% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 14 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 11 | 5.5% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 10 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Other | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 7 | 3.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 58 | 29.0% |
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 Seymour mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 84 | 42.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 22 | 11.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 21 | 10.5% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 20 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 9 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 8 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 5 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 18 | 9.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Seymour departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 95% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $275,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $25,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Seymour 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 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,634 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,549 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 870 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 450 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 354 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 25.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 280 | 26.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 220 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 200 | 25.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 182 | 25.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 165 | 24.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 156 | 24.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 100 | 25.6 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 47274 | 938 |
Six Indiana cities with population within ±25% of Seymour. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Seymour.
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.