In 2025, fire departments serving Central City responded to 45 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 80% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
132 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 14 | — | |
| 2022 | 20 | — | |
| 2023 | 22 | +10.0% | |
| 2024 | 31 | +40.9% | |
| 2025 | 45 | +45.2% |
* Well below Central City'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 6 building fires Central City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 39 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 | 11 | 28.2% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 12.8% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 12.8% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Other | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Storage area, other | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 9 | 23.1% |
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 Central City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 19 | 48.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 7 | 17.9% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Conducted heat from another fire | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 2.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Central City departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $22,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $15,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Central City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,134 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 824 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 402 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 360 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 316 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 228 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 26.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 165 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 160 | 29.9 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 | 52214 | 132 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Central City. 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.