In 2025, fire departments serving Ypsilanti responded to 719 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 53% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,672 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $14.0M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 579 | — | |
| 2022 | 617 | +6.6% | |
| 2023 | 1,168 | +89.3% | |
| 2024 | 589 | -49.6% | |
| 2025 | 719 | +22.1% |
For the 131 building fires Ypsilanti departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 478 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 | 106 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 66 | 13.8% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 43 | 9.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 26 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 17 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 16 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 15 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 15 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 14 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Other | 12 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 148 | 31.0% |
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 Ypsilanti mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 209 | 43.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 60 | 12.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 43 | 9.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 38 | 7.9% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 35 | 7.3% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 15 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 12 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 8 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 8 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 41 | 8.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ypsilanti departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 57% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $185,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ypsilanti sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
13 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 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,806 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 25.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 143 | 38.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 142 | 39.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 100 | 28.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 98 | 23.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 96 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 80 | 20.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 77 | 13.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 69 | 35.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 50.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 51 | 39.1 mi |
Top 9 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 Ypsilanti. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Ypsilanti.
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.