In 2025, fire departments serving Eldora responded to 30 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K 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 73% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
125 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $741K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022 | 31 | — | |
| 2023 | 32 | +3.2% | |
| 2024 | 31 | -3.1% | |
| 2025 | 30 | -3.2% |
* Well below Eldora'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 4 building fires Eldora departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 41 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 | 21 | 51.2% | |
| 2 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 12.2% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 9.8% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 4 | 9.8% | |
| 5 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 6 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Wall assembly | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 2.4% |
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 Eldora mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 27 | 65.9% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 3 | 7.3% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 7.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Heat source: other | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Match | 1 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 1 | 2.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Eldora departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $30,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Cultivated grain or crop fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Eldora sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,163 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 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 700 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 175 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 32.9 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 | 50627 | 125 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Eldora. 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.