In 2025, fire departments serving Franklin County responded to 6,879 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $3.0M property loss.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories make up about 51% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips.
42,137 incidents from 2021 through 2025.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 8,823 | |
| 2022 | 8,428 | |
| 2023 | 8,726 | |
| 2024 | 9,281 | |
| 2025 | 6,879 |
For the 841 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Largest single-incident property losses in Franklin County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 28% of the county's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,000,000 | Worthington | Outside equipment fire | Major |
| 2 | $1,441,400 | Columbus | Building fires | Major |
| 3 | $1,441,400 | Columbus | Building fires | Major |
| 4 | $500,000 | Columbus | Building fires | Major |
| 5 | $500,000 | Westerville | Building fires | Major |
| 6 | $435,000 | CANAL WINCHESTER | Building fires | Major |
| 7 | $400,000 | COLUMBUS | Building fires | Major |
| 8 | $350,000 | Columbus | Building fires | Major |
| 9 | $350,000 | Gahanna | Building fires | Major |
| 10 | $300,000 | Columbus | Building fires | Major |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.
12 cities mapped to FIPS 39049.
| City | Population | |
|---|---|---|
| Columbus | 902,449 | View › |
| Dublin | 48,893 | View › |
| Grove City | 41,423 | View › |
| Reynoldsburg | 40,926 | View › |
| Westerville | 38,911 | View › |
| Upper Arlington | 36,500 | View › |
| Hilliard | 36,103 | View › |
| Gahanna | 35,529 | View › |
| Whitehall | 20,035 | View › |
| Worthington | 14,997 | View › |
| Bexley | 13,537 | View › |
| New Albany | 10,516 | View › |
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.