In 2025, fire departments serving Upper Arlington responded to 113 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Upper Arlington's departments reported 113 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 203 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 64% of all calls.
May peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,016 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $2.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 219 | — | |
| 2022 | 204 | -6.8% | |
| 2023 | 257 | +26.0% | |
| 2024 | 223 | -13.2% | |
| 2025* | 113 | — |
* Well below Upper Arlington'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 15 building fires Upper Arlington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 106 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 | 21 | 19.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 10 | 9.4% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 7.5% | |
| 4 | Wall surface: exterior | 7 | 6.6% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 6 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 5.7% | |
| 7 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 5 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 5 | 4.7% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 4 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 4 | 3.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 30 | 28.3% |
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 Upper Arlington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 24 | 22.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 19 | 17.9% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 11 | 10.4% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 5 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 4 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 3 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 16 | 15.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Upper Arlington departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $25,000 | Building or structure weakened or collapsed | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $2,000 | Dumpster or other outside trash receptacle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Upper Arlington sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
150 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 | 11 | |
| 30-39 | 30 | |
| 40-49 | 50 | |
| 50-59 | 58 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 23 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,111 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 355 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 332 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 35 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 24 | 23.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 24 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 46.4 mi |
Top 3 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 Upper Arlington. 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.