In 2025, fire departments serving Emily responded to 14 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Forest, woods or wildland fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 78% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
49 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $31K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 14 | — | |
| 2022 | 11 | -21.4% | |
| 2023* | 4 | — | |
| 2024 | 6 | — | |
| 2025 | 14 | +133.3% |
* Well below Emily'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 2 building fires Emily departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 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 | 3 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Structural area, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 11.1% |
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 Emily mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 55.6% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Match | 1 | 11.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Emily sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,276 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,200 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,260 | 33.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,242 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,150 | 24.7 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 930 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 850 | 24.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 725 | 23.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 679 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 663 | 42.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 640 | 33.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 600 | 19.7 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 600 | 23.2 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 | 56447 | 49 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Emily. 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.