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2025 County Report

Fires in Geauga County, OH

In 2025, fire departments serving Geauga County responded to 1,378 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $500K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

30,870 residents FIPS 39055 35 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
1,378
8,852 across 5 years
Building fires
275
42 wildland
Property loss
$4.2M
$2.5M structure · $1.7M contents
Casualties
1 / 3
1 civ deaths · 2 civ inj · 1 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.

1,378
Total Incidents
Building fires 275 20.0%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 233 16.9%
Power line down 206 14.9%
Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue 133 9.7%
Unauthorized burning 92 6.7%
All other categories 439 31.9%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Geauga County?

Mar peaks. Jun dips.

Jan 108
Feb 155
Mar 201
Apr 151
May 112
Jun 50
Jul 96
Aug 57
Sep 117
Oct 146
Nov 133
Dec 52
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Geauga County

8,852 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 1,693
2022 1,789
2023 1,933
2024 2,059
2025 1,378
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 275 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
42%
53
Cause undetermined
16%
20
Intentional / arson
10%
13
Equipment / heat source failure
17%
21
Under investigation
12%
15
Act of nature (lightning)
3%
4
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $2.0M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Geauga County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 77% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $500,000 Middlefield Building fires Major
2 $250,000 Middlefield Building fires Major
3 $207,700 MONTVILLE Building fires Significant
4 $200,000 Thompson Building fires Significant
5 $175,000 Auburn Building fires Significant
6 $175,000 Auburn Building fires Significant
7 $150,000 Middlefield Building fires Significant
8 $100,000 Thompson Building fires Significant
9 $100,000 Claridon Building fires Significant
10 $100,000 Chesterland Building fires Significant
06 How Geauga County compares

Geauga County vs OH vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

44.64
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Geauga County
44.64
OH avg
11.07
US avg
7.15
8.91
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Geauga County
8.91
OH avg
1.95
US avg
0.82
32.4
Civilian fire deaths per million
Geauga County
32.4
OH avg
10.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Geauga County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 39055.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Geauga County

1 departments report from this county.

THOMPSON FIRE DEPARTMENT
Thompson
FDID 28129 14 incidents
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in OH

Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).

#NameYearAgencyAcres
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

About this data

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.