In 2025, fire departments serving Westlake responded to 179 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 65% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,290 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $6.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 239 | — | |
| 2022 | 263 | +10.0% | |
| 2023 | 281 | +6.8% | |
| 2024 | 328 | +16.7% | |
| 2025 | 179 | -45.4% |
For the 16 building fires Westlake departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 195 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 | Undetermined | 29 | 14.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 23 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 22 | 11.3% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 18 | 9.2% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 13 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 13 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Other | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 6 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 54 | 27.7% |
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 Westlake mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 78 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 16 | 8.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 13 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 10 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 10 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Chemical reaction | 10 | 5.1% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 7 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 32 | 16.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Westlake departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $53,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $7,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $2,500 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Westlake sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
8 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 7 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 515 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 25 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 20 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 38.8 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 | 44145 | 1,290 |
Six Ohio cities with population within ±25% of Westlake. 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.