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2025 County Report

Fires in Howard County, IN

In 2025, fire departments serving Howard County responded to 539 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $800K property loss.

63,836 residents FIPS 18067 20 cities · 0 fire depts
Total incidents
539
2,904 across 5 years
Building fires
69
44 wildland
Property loss
$4.2M
$3.3M structure · $855K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.

539
Total Incidents
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 84 15.6%
Building fires 69 12.8%
Outside rubbish fire, other 58 10.8%
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire 51 9.5%
Power line down 49 9.1%
All other categories 228 42.3%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Howard County?

Nov peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 56
Feb 32
Mar 60
Apr 53
May 53
Jun 44
Jul 71
Aug 49
Sep 0
Oct 9
Nov 79
Dec 33
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Howard County

2,904 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 457
2022 592
2023 657
2024 659
2025 539
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 69 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
38%
59
Cause undetermined
17%
26
Intentional / arson
11%
17
Equipment / heat source failure
4%
6
Under investigation
24%
37
Act of nature (lightning)
6%
4
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.8M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Howard County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 53% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $800,000 Kokomo Building fires Major
2 $200,000 Greentown Building fires Significant
3 $115,000 Kokomo Building fires Significant
4 $100,000 Kokomo Passenger vehicle fire Significant
5 $100,000 Russiaville Building fires Significant
6 $100,000 Kokomo Building fires Significant
7 $100,000 Kokomo Building fires Significant
8 $91,100 Kokomo Building fires Significant
9 $80,000 Kokomo Building fires Significant
10 $75,000 Kokomo Building fires Significant
06 How Howard County compares

Howard County vs IN vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

8.44
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Howard County
8.44
IN avg
8.61
US avg
7.15
1.08
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Howard County
1.08
IN avg
1.26
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Howard County
0
IN avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Howard County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 18067.

09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in IN

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

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.