Fires damaged and destroyed about 320 structures in Dayton last year, which was dozens of properties more than in 2023, according to data from the Dayton Fire Department.
About a third of the structure fires involved vacant and idle properties, and the city also saw an uptick in intentional fires.
City leaders and officials have stressed that they are especially concerned about fires in vacant and abandoned structures because homeless individuals sometimes are inside, which leads to tragedy and death.
“Vacant and abandoned structures simply cannot be an option for (the unhoused) any longer,” Dayton fire Chief Mike Rice said at a press conference last fall. “As a community and as the city of Dayton, we simply care too much to allow our residents to stay in conditions that pose such grave safety risks.”
Two people have already died in fires in Dayton this year, which is just one death short of the full tally for all of 2024.
The numbers
The Dayton Fire Department responded to about 573 fires in 2024 that involved buildings, vehicles, dumpsters, trash, outside equipment, brush, grass and other items and materials.
The fires caused more than $5.7 million worth of property damage and losses to possessions.
Dayton recorded about 536 fires in 2023 — which was just one incident fewer than in 2022.
According to fire department data, last year there were 94 fires in vacant and abandoned buildings and 15 in structures that were idle and not regularly in use. Fires damaged 113 vacant and idle structures in 2023.
Three people were killed and 16 were injured in fires in Dayton last year.
One of the deceased, 31-year-old Brandon Lacinak, was found in June when a vacant and abandoned home was being demolished on Salem Avenue in northwest Dayton.
The home caught fire in late January, around the time that Lacinak went missing.
A Montgomery County Coroner report says that a woman told police that she, Lacinak and others were doing drugs in the vacant home on Jan. 22 when it caught fire. She said Lacinak was passed out, and they left him when they escaped, the coroner’s report states.
His death was ruled an accident, a result of inhaling products of combustion.
Also last year, a 61-year-old man died from burns and inhaling products of combustion after an RV caught fire in January. A 74-year-old woman died after her home caught fire in July.
There have already been two fatal fires in Dayton this year, which occurred within days of each other in January. Both fires were to buildings that were in use.
Dangerous properties
Eleven people were hurt and nine people died in fires in Dayton in 2023. That was the highest death count in years and largely stemmed from a March 2023 incident in which authorities recovered the bodies of five people after a vacant home caught fire in West Dayton.
Neighbors and officials said squatters hung out in the home and used it for shelter.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Dayton has thousands of vacant and abandoned structures, which sometimes attract illegal activities like drug use, vandalism and prostitution.
Trespassers often sleep and hang out inside vacant buildings. Officials say this can be very risky, particularly when people use makeshift lamps or cooking devices or try to stay warm by using an open flame.
Chief Rice last year said the city was going to take a more aggressive approach to removing people from vacant and abandoned structures due to safety risks.
He said community members should report unsecured vacant structures and notify the city when they see people around or inside vacant buildings.
Dayton police Lt. Col. Eric Henderson, assistant police chief, last fall said the city has seen an increase in issues with unhoused people going into abandoned buildings.
Three-fourths of vacant building fires last year occurred in properties that were not secured, fire department data show.
City officials say staff work hard to try to connect unhoused individuals with resources so they don’t have to stay in vacant buildings. But some still choose to do so.
Assistant fire Chief Brad French said community members should report any signs of active or ongoing illegal activity in vacant or abandoned structures to police (911 or 937-333-COPS).
He also said community members can submit requests and reports on the city’s Dayton Delivers App and website.
Community members can use the online tool to report unsecured structures that need to be boarded up; previously boarded structures that are now unsecured; structural deterioration that appears to pose a safety hazard; and other issues, like overgrowth.
Last year, there were about 107 intentional fires; 171 unintentional blazes; and 112 that had undetermined causes, fire data show. Some fires remain under investigation.
French said tips or information related to fire incidents should be directed to the Fire Investigations Unit at 937-333-TIPS.
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