In 2025, fire departments serving Alta responded to 13 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 92% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
30 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $530K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 1 | — | |
| 2023 | 4 | — | |
| 2024 | 12 | +200.0% | |
| 2025 | 13 | +8.3% |
* Well below Alta's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 3 building fires Alta departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 4 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Interior stairway or ramp | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 9 | Multiple areas | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 10 | Undetermined | 1 | 7.7% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Alta mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Alta departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Alta sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,855 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 700 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 600 | 29.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 220 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 26.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 160 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 31.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 155 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 145 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 49.4 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 51002 | 30 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Alta. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 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. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.