In 2025, fire departments serving Biwabik responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 94% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
55 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $6K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 8 | — | |
| 2022 | 15 | +87.5% | |
| 2023 | 9 | -40.0% | |
| 2024* | 6 | — | |
| 2025 | 17 | — |
* Well below Biwabik'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 10 building fires Biwabik departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 4 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 | Function area, other | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 1 | 25.0% |
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 Biwabik mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 1 | 25.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Biwabik sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 117,560 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 92,682 | 44.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,200 | 10.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 4,750 | 44.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Natural | 3,048 | 39.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,200 | 7.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 2,085 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 973 | 10.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 953 | 32.0 mi | |
| 1998 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 950 | 24.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 936 | 26.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 732 | 21.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 517 | 42.8 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Biwabik. 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.