In 2025, fire departments serving Batavia responded to 20 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $4K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 85% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
42 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $4K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023* | 2 | — | |
| 2024 | 15 | — | |
| 2025 | 20 | +33.3% |
* Well below Batavia'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 4 building fires Batavia departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 10 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 | Undetermined | 5 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 1 | 10.0% |
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 Batavia mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 60.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 30.0% | |
| 3 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 1 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Batavia departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Batavia sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,262 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 1,000 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 640 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 14.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 454 | 30.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 340 | 24.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 27.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 180 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 170 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 28.5 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 | 52533 | 42 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Batavia. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Batavia.
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.