In 2025, fire departments serving Wilberforce responded to 16 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 87% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
76 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $116K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022 | 12 | — | |
| 2023 | 24 | +100.0% | |
| 2024 | 22 | -8.3% | |
| 2025 | 16 | -27.3% |
* Well below Wilberforce'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 0 building fires Wilberforce departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 4 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 | Bedroom - 5+ persons; including barrack/dormitory | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Wall assembly | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 4 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 25.0% |
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 Wilberforce mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 75.0% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 25.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wilberforce sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 12 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 333 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 125 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 50 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 25 | 24.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 18 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 17.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 10 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 | 48.2 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 | 45384 | 76 |
Six Ohio cities with population within ±25% of Wilberforce. 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.