ZIP 46342 recorded 53 fire and hazmat incidents in 2025, 509 across 2021–2025. Primary county: Lake County, IN. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.
509 incidents from 2021 through 2025 inside this ZIP.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 165 | |
| 2022 | 151 | |
| 2023 | 96 | |
| 2024 | 44 | |
| 2025 | 53 |
Jul peaks. Nov dips. Aggregated across all 5 years inside this ZIP.
Top 5 NFIRS incident types for ZIP 46342 across 2021–2025.
| # | Incident type | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Building fires | 92 | 18.1% | |
| 2 | Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) | 77 | 15.1% | |
| 3 | Power line down | 65 | 12.8% | |
| 4 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | 37 | 7.3% | |
| 5 | Passenger vehicle fire | 23 | 4.5% |
For the 17 building fires reported here in 2025, here's how investigators classified ignition cause.
NFIRS Area of Origin for ZIP 46342 fires across 2021–2025.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 26 | 21.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 16 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 13 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Other | 9 | 7.3% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 7 | 5.7% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 5 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | All other areas | 33 | 26.8% |
NFIRS HEAT_SOURC code — the physical thing that started the fire.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 64 | 52.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 13 | 10.6% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 4.9% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 6 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 4 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | All other sources | 21 | 17.1% |
Largest single-incident losses in ZIP 46342 across 2021–2025. These 8 fires alone account for 1935% of the ZIP's 2025 reported total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Year | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $407,498 | Building fires | 2024 | Major |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | 2023 | Significant |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | 2023 | Significant |
| 4 | $181,300 | Building fires | 2022 | Significant |
| 5 | $150,000 | Building fires | 2023 | Significant |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | 2023 | Significant |
| 7 | $85,000 | Building fires | 2022 | Significant |
| 8 | $60,000 | Building fires | 2022 | Significant |
Some ZIPs span multiple cities. Ranked by 5-yr NFIRS incidents inside ZIP 46342.
| # | City | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hobart | 400 | |
| 2 | New Chicago | 90 | |
| 3 | Gary | 3 | |
| 4 | Valparaiso | 2 | |
| 5 | Hammond | 1 |
Some ZIPs span multiple counties. The primary above is the largest by population weight; secondary counties are below.
| County | State | Weight | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Porter County | IN | 1.00 | FIPS 18127 |
The figures above are historical. For today's air quality, fire-weather warnings, and active fires, go to the official sources.
NFIRS reports each fire incident with a 5-digit address ZIP. We aggregate those rows directly to produce ZIP-level totals — 509 incidents in this ZIP across 2021–2025. Building-fire breakdowns (Area of Origin, Heat Source, ignition cause) only count fires investigators classified beyond the basic incident report. Because NFIRS reporting is voluntary, totals are a strong indicator rather than a complete census.