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2025 County Report

Fires in Lake County, OH

In 2025, fire departments serving Lake County responded to 2,363 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $1.0M property loss.

180,071 residents FIPS 39085 29 cities · 0 fire depts
Total incidents
2,363
15,353 across 5 years
Building fires
370
60 wildland
Property loss
$7.2M
$5.1M structure · $2.1M contents
Casualties
0 / 12
0 civ deaths · 7 civ inj · 5 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Power line down lead by count. Top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.

2,363
Total Incidents
Power line down 464 19.6%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 430 18.2%
Building fires 370 15.7%
Unauthorized burning 170 7.2%
Carbon monoxide incident 144 6.1%
All other categories 785 33.2%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Lake County?

Mar peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 188
Feb 178
Mar 343
Apr 205
May 190
Jun 256
Jul 267
Aug 154
Sep 152
Oct 171
Nov 153
Dec 106
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Lake County

15,353 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 3,005
2022 3,174
2023 3,171
2024 3,640
2025 2,363
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 370 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
51%
143
Cause undetermined
20%
56
Intentional / arson
8%
22
Equipment / heat source failure
8%
23
Under investigation
11%
32
Act of nature (lightning)
2%
3
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $3.6M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Lake County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 72% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $1,000,000 Painesville Building fires Major
2 $800,000 Willoughby Building fires Major
3 $500,000 Painesville Building fires Major
4 $300,000 Madison Building fires Major
5 $200,000 Eastlake Building fires Significant
6 $200,000 Perry Building fires Significant
7 $165,580 WILLOWICK Building fires Significant
8 $165,000 Mentor Building fires Significant
9 $160,000 Mentor Building fires Significant
10 $150,000 Mentor Building fires Significant
06 How Lake County compares

Lake County vs OH vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

13.12
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Lake County
13.12
OH avg
11.07
US avg
7.15
2.05
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Lake County
2.05
OH avg
1.95
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Lake County
0
OH avg
10.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Lake County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 39085.

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.