In 2025, fire departments serving Defiance County responded to 405 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $300K property loss.
Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 49% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Dec dips.
2,380 incidents from 2021 through 2025.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 479 | |
| 2022 | 557 | |
| 2023 | 458 | |
| 2024 | 481 | |
| 2025 | 405 |
For the 117 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Largest single-incident property losses in Defiance County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 72% of the county's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | DEFIANCE | Building fires | Major |
| 2 | $300,000 | DEFIANCE | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Major |
| 3 | $185,000 | Defiance | Building fires | Significant |
| 4 | $140,000 | SHERWOOD | Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire | Significant |
| 5 | $100,000 | Defiance | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant |
| 6 | $75,000 | Defiance | Building fires | Significant |
| 7 | $70,440 | Defiance | Building fires | Significant |
| 8 | $70,000 | Hicksville | Building fires | Significant |
| 9 | $60,000 | SHERWOOD | Building fires | Significant |
| 10 | $60,000 | Defiance | Building fires | Significant |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.
11 cities mapped to FIPS 39039.
26 departments report from this county.
Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).
| # | Name | Year | Agency | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | OHOTR-FY19-RX-Blausey Spring 2019 WUI | 2019 | FWS | 125 |
| 2 | Little Storm Creek | 2020 | USFS | 122 |
| 3 | GREEN | 2015 | USFS | 109 |
| 4 | THIRTEEN | 2018 | USFS | 105 |
| 5 | Terra Vista Prescribe Fire | 2021 | NPS | 79 |
| 6 | Lawco | 2023 | USFS | 61 |
| 7 | 128 | 2021 | USFS | 51 |
| 8 | FY23 NERI RX Burns | 2022 | NPS | 40 |
| 9 | Rock Hollow | 2023 | USFS | 29 |
| 10 | HOADLEY | 2018 | USFS | 24 |
County-level NFIRS aggregates for 2025, plus 5-year totals across 2021–2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Wildfire risk score (0–100) and Expected Annual Loss come from FEMA's National Risk Index. Drought class is the most recent USDM classification (D0 = abnormally dry through D4 = exceptional drought). Historical fire perimeters are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.