In 2025, fire departments serving Sunfield responded to 30 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $25K 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 77% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
127 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 14 | — | |
| 2022 | 23 | — | |
| 2023 | 29 | +26.1% | |
| 2024 | 31 | +6.9% | |
| 2025 | 30 | -3.2% |
* Well below Sunfield'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 8 building fires Sunfield departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 21 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 | Undetermined | 11 | 52.4% | |
| 2 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 3 | Other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Outside area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 4.8% |
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 Sunfield mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 15 | 71.4% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 4.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sunfield departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $13,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sunfield sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,029 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 191 | 24.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 150 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 143 | 46.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 142 | 39.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 119 | 14.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 105 | 29.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 44.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 49.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Smoking | 90 | 45.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 | 38.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 70 | 49.3 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 Michigan cities with population within ±25% of Sunfield. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Sunfield.
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.