In 2025, fire departments serving Ely responded to 25 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $175K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 72% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
89 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $388K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 28 | — | |
| 2022 | 18 | -35.7% | |
| 2023 | 18 | +0.0% | |
| 2024* | 0 | — | |
| 2025 | 25 | — |
* 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 7 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 10 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 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Closet | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 1 | 10.0% |
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 | 4 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 1 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ely departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ely sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 148,504 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 92,682 | 15.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 31,830 | 41.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,200 | 26.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Natural | 4,750 | 18.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Natural | 3,048 | 11.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,200 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 2,085 | 15.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Natural | 1,335 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 973 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 953 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 936 | 10.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 340 | 23.3 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 | 55731 | 89 |
Six Minnesota 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.