In 2025, fire departments serving Willoughby Hills responded to 123 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $25K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 64% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
752 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $496K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 172 | — | |
| 2022 | 129 | -25.0% | |
| 2023 | 142 | +10.1% | |
| 2024 | 186 | +31.0% | |
| 2025 | 123 | -33.9% |
For the 16 building fires Willoughby Hills departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 112 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 | 20 | 17.9% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 18 | 16.1% | |
| 3 | Other | 10 | 8.9% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 8.9% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 7 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 5 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 4 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 4 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Outside area, other | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 28 | 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 Willoughby Hills mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 46 | 41.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 15 | 13.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 13 | 11.6% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 9 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 4 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 9 | Molten, hot material | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 9.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Willoughby Hills departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $3,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $200 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Willoughby Hills sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
22 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 | 5 | |
| 30-39 | 11 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 2 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 420 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 | 7.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 | 18.6 mi |
Top 6 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 Willoughby Hills. 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.