In 2025, fire departments serving Vandalia responded to 150 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $40K 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 61% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,135 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $3.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 230 | — | |
| 2022 | 279 | +21.3% | |
| 2023 | 253 | -9.3% | |
| 2024 | 223 | -11.9% | |
| 2025 | 150 | -32.7% |
For the 26 building fires Vandalia departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 154 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 31 | 20.1% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 18 | 11.7% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 15 | 9.7% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 14 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 12 | 7.8% | |
| 6 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 8 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 5 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 4 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 4 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Other | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 40 | 26.0% |
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 Vandalia mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 46 | 29.9% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 21 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 13 | 8.4% | |
| 4 | Chemical reaction | 10 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 9 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 5.8% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 6 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 5 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 23 | 14.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Vandalia departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $40,212 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $35,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $13,060 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,780 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $3,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Vandalia sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
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 | 18.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 24.9 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 Vandalia. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Vandalia.
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.