In 2025, fire departments serving De Soto responded to 13 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $75K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gasoline or other flammable liquid spill lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
103 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $125K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 8 | — | |
| 2022* | 12 | — | |
| 2023 | 57 | — | |
| 2024 | 13 | -77.2% | |
| 2025 | 13 | +0.0% |
* Well below De Soto'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 De Soto departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 18 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 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Roof surface: exterior | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 10 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 11.1% |
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 De Soto mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 2 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Candle | 1 | 5.6% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 5.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by De Soto departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. De Soto sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,279 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 700 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 346 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 328 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 320 | 23.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 24.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 34.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 115 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 110 | 45.5 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 | 50069 | 103 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of De Soto. 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.