In 2025, fire departments serving Dike responded to 16 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $4K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 81% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
27 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $14K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024 | 8 | — | |
| 2025 | 16 | +100.0% |
* Well below Dike'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 0 building fires Dike departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 5 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 | 2 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 20.0% |
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 Dike mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 80.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 20.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dike departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $4,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dike sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,674 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 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 402 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 360 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 316 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 175 | 35.1 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 | 50624 | 27 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Dike. 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.