In 2025, fire departments serving Clear Lake responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. Clear Lake's departments reported 18 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 54 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
272 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $804K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 43 | — | |
| 2022 | 50 | +16.3% | |
| 2023 | 66 | +32.0% | |
| 2024 | 95 | +43.9% | |
| 2025* | 18 | — |
* Well below Clear Lake'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 2 building fires Clear Lake departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 102 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 | 18 | 17.6% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 15 | 14.7% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 11 | 10.8% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 10 | 9.8% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 9 | 8.8% | |
| 6 | Wall assembly | 5 | 4.9% | |
| 7 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 4 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 3 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 3 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Roof surface: exterior | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 22 | 21.6% |
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 Clear Lake mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 23 | 22.5% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 20 | 19.6% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 14 | 13.7% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 8.8% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 6 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 6 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 6 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 4 | 3.9% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 8 | 7.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Clear Lake departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50 | Special outside fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Clear Lake sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
10 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 6 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,071 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 750 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 24.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 177 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 85 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 85 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 65 | 46.2 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 Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Clear Lake. 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.