In 2025, fire departments serving Yale responded to 22 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $275K 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 68% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
138 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $283K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 55 | — | |
| 2022* | 15 | — | |
| 2023 | 18 | — | |
| 2024 | 28 | +55.6% | |
| 2025 | 22 | -21.4% |
* Well below Yale'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 Yale departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 2 | Structural area, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Yale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Match | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 14.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Yale departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $275,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Yale sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 21 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 745 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 | 116 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 70 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 64 | 20.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 53 | 16.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 49 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Fireworks | 40 | 33.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 37 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 36 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 33 | 9.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 30 | 8.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 27 | 5.5 mi |
Top 4 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 Yale. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Yale.
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.