In 2025, fire departments serving Vermontville responded to 33 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K 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 82% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
139 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $207K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 32 | — | |
| 2022* | 14 | — | |
| 2023 | 30 | — | |
| 2024 | 30 | +0.0% | |
| 2025 | 33 | +10.0% |
* Well below Vermontville'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 7 building fires Vermontville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 14 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 | 3 | 21.4% | |
| 2 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 10 | Vacant structural area | 1 | 7.1% |
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 Vermontville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 21.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 21.4% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 9 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 7.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Vermontville departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Power line down | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Vermontville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,971 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 | 33.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 150 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 143 | 47.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 142 | 38.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 119 | 11.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 105 | 20.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 45.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Smoking | 90 | 44.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 66 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 61 | 43.7 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 Michigan cities with population within ±25% of Vermontville. 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.