In 2025, fire departments serving Waynesfield responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $3K 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 82% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
60 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $174K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 7 | — | |
| 2022 | 8 | — | |
| 2023 | 12 | +50.0% | |
| 2024 | 16 | +33.3% | |
| 2025 | 17 | +6.2% |
* Well below Waynesfield'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 6 building fires Waynesfield departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 17 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 | 7 | 41.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 4 | 23.5% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Chimney (conversion only) | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 5.9% |
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 Waynesfield mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 58.8% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 5.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Waynesfield departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,100 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $2,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Waynesfield sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 5 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 440 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 332 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 40.8 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 45896 | 60 |
Six Ohio cities with population within ±25% of Waynesfield. 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.