In 2025, fire departments serving Trotwood responded to 217 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $80K 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 66% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,767 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $4.6M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 392 | — | |
| 2022 | 383 | -2.3% | |
| 2023 | 411 | +7.3% | |
| 2024 | 364 | -11.4% | |
| 2025 | 217 | -40.4% |
For the 55 building fires Trotwood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 702 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 117 | 16.7% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 110 | 15.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 109 | 15.5% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 47 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 27 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Vacant structural area | 26 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 24 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 24 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 17 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 15 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 186 | 26.5% |
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 Trotwood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 313 | 44.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 96 | 13.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 54 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 39 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 22 | 3.1% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 22 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Conducted heat from another fire | 22 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 18 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 17 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 17 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 82 | 11.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Trotwood departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 76% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $27,420 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Trotwood sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
57 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 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 5 | |
| 20-29 | 11 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 6 | |
| 50-59 | 8 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 3 |
Top 2 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 40 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 27.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 32.7 mi |
Top 9 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 Trotwood. 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.