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2025 County Report

Fires in Morrow County, OH

In 2025, fire departments serving Morrow County responded to 315 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $273K property loss.

8,052 residents FIPS 39117 23 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
315
1,782 across 5 years
Building fires
89
30 wildland
Property loss
$1.4M
$895K structure · $461K contents
Casualties
0 / 9
0 civ deaths · 7 civ inj · 2 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.

315
Total Incidents
Building fires 89 28.3%
Power line down 23 7.3%
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire 19 6.0%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 17 5.4%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 17 5.4%
All other categories 150 47.6%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Morrow County?

Mar peaks. Jan dips.

Jan 18
Feb 22
Mar 44
Apr 32
May 20
Jun 28
Jul 21
Aug 22
Sep 24
Oct 33
Nov 32
Dec 19
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Morrow County

1,782 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 387
2022 432
2023 328
2024 320
2025 315
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 89 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
41%
45
Cause undetermined
14%
15
Intentional / arson
17%
19
Equipment / heat source failure
20%
22
Under investigation
6%
7
Act of nature (lightning)
2%
2
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $733K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Morrow County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 82% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $272,600 BenningtonTownship Building fires Major
2 $100,000 GILEAD TWP Building fires Significant
3 $75,000 CANAAN TWP Building fires Significant
4 $60,000 Mount Gilead Building fires Significant
5 $50,000 Marengo Building fires Significant
6 $45,000 Mount Gilead Building fires Significant
7 $40,000 Marengo Building fires Significant
8 $35,000 Mount Gilead Building fires Significant
9 $30,000 Mount Gilead Building fires Significant
10 $25,000 MT GILEAD Building fires Significant
06 How Morrow County compares

Morrow County vs OH vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

39.12
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Morrow County
39.12
OH avg
11.07
US avg
7.15
11.05
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Morrow County
11.05
OH avg
1.95
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Morrow County
0
OH avg
10.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Morrow County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 39117.

CityPopulation 
Mount Gilead 2,927 View ›
Cardington 1,925 View ›
Candlewood Lake 1,181 View ›
Edison 497 View ›
Iberia 490 View ›
Fulton 374 View ›
Marengo 294 View ›
Chesterville 189 View ›
Sparta 175 View ›
Saint James 0 View ›
Westfield 0 View ›
Pagetown 0 View ›
08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Morrow County

1 departments report from this county.

IBERIA JNT FIRE DIST
Galion
FDID 59302 28 incidents 15 vol
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.