In 2025, fire departments serving Burnsville responded to 335 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $404K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,627 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $9.9M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 358 | — | |
| 2022 | 284 | -20.7% | |
| 2023 | 274 | -3.5% | |
| 2024 | 376 | +37.2% | |
| 2025 | 335 | -10.9% |
For the 68 building fires Burnsville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 301 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 72 | 23.9% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 47 | 15.6% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 18 | 6.0% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 16 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 15 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 15 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 12 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 12 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 11 | 3.7% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 10 | 3.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 73 | 24.3% |
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 Burnsville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 101 | 33.6% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 43 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 23 | 7.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 18 | 6.0% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 16 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 15 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 11 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 9 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 8 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 46 | 15.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Burnsville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 81% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $403,600 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $122,300 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Burnsville sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
25 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 7 | |
| 30-39 | 5 | |
| 40-49 | 5 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 19,691 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 8,513 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,909 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,550 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,000 | 5.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 420 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 336 | 36.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 306 | 34.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 290 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 260 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 27.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 248 | 40.8 mi |
Top 7 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 Burnsville. 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.