In 2025, fire departments serving Sylvania responded to 96 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $125K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Arcing, shorted electrical equipment lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
590 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $2.8M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 121 | — | |
| 2022 | 129 | +6.6% | |
| 2023 | 125 | -3.1% | |
| 2024 | 119 | -4.8% | |
| 2025 | 96 | -19.3% |
For the 11 building fires Sylvania departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 141 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 | 24 | 17.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 17 | 12.1% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 16 | 11.3% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 13 | 9.2% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 10 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 7 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 7 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 6 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 6 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 5 | 3.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 30 | 21.3% |
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 Sylvania mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 58 | 41.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 20 | 14.2% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 12 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 12 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 4 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Chemical reaction | 3 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 15 | 10.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sylvania departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,500 | Heat from short circuit (wiring), defective/worn | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,500 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $300 | Dumpster or other outside trash receptacle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sylvania sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
8 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 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,133 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 | 32.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 98 | 37.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 19.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 77 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 69 | 12.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 42 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 40 | 27.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 36 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 22 | 7.1 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 Sylvania. 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.