In 2025, fire departments serving Garnavillo responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 89% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
51 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $50K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 6 | — | |
| 2022* | 6 | — | |
| 2023 | 10 | — | |
| 2024 | 11 | +10.0% | |
| 2025 | 18 | +63.6% |
* Well below Garnavillo'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 5 building fires Garnavillo 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 | Undetermined | 10 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 6 | 30.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 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 Garnavillo mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 11 | 55.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 4 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 15.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 5.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Garnavillo sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,737 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 33.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 189 | 24.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 166 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 165 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 140 | 28.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 124 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 120 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 100 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 85 | 29.1 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 | 52049 | 51 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Garnavillo. 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.