In 2025, fire departments serving Des Moines responded to 1,605 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $375K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
6,141 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $7.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,157 | — | |
| 2022* | 158 | — | |
| 2023 | 1,477 | — | |
| 2024 | 1,744 | +18.1% | |
| 2025 | 1,605 | -8.0% |
* Well below Des Moines'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 75 building fires Des Moines departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,000 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 | Outside area, other | 571 | 28.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 285 | 14.2% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 175 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 134 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 88 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 85 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 84 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Other | 72 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 60 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 55 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 391 | 19.6% |
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 Des Moines mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 978 | 48.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 176 | 8.8% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 135 | 6.8% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 99 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 83 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 80 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 63 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 56 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 46 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 44 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 240 | 12.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Des Moines departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 47% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $375,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $45,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $45,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Des Moines sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
14 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 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 6 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,256 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 | 17.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 346 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 320 | 24.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 25.8 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Des Moines.
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.