In 2025, fire departments serving Ely responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 70% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
50 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $216K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 17 | — | |
| 2024 | 19 | +11.8% | |
| 2025 | 10 | -47.4% |
* Well below Ely'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 Ely departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 20 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 | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 2 | Multiple areas | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 4 | Equipment or service area, other | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 7 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 9 | Maintenance shop or area, paint shop or area | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 5.0% |
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 Ely mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 7 | 35.0% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 9 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 10 | Chemical, natural heat source, other | 1 | 5.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ely departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ely sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,760 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,200 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 832 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 824 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 820 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 630 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 402 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 22.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 360 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 316 | 31.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 282 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 42.9 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 | 52227 | 50 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Ely. 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.