In 2025, fire departments serving Solon responded to 156 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Solon's departments reported 156 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 277 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 72% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,385 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 274 | — | |
| 2022 | 297 | +8.4% | |
| 2023 | 332 | +11.8% | |
| 2024 | 326 | -1.8% | |
| 2025* | 156 | — |
* Well below Solon'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 48 building fires Solon departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 433 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 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 182 | 42.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 59 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 40 | 9.2% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 22 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 13 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 12 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 12 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 11 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Equipment or service area, other | 9 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 8 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 65 | 15.0% |
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 Solon mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 148 | 34.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 98 | 22.6% | |
| 3 | Heat, spark from friction | 41 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 32 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 24 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 14 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 11 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 10 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 9 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 8 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 38 | 8.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Solon departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $55,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $3,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Solon sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 5 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 500 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 30 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 25 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 28.4 mi |
Top 5 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 Solon. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.