In 2025, fire departments serving Greenbush responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 90% of all calls.
May peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
70 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $1.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 27 | — | |
| 2022 | 12 | -55.6% | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024 | 21 | — | |
| 2025 | 10 | -52.4% |
* Well below Greenbush'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 3 building fires Greenbush departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 24 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 | 18 | 75.0% | |
| 2 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Assembly or sales area, other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 4 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 1 | 4.2% |
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 Greenbush mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 19 | 79.2% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 4.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Greenbush departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $65,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1 | Forest, woods or wildland fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Greenbush sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 221,134 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 38,753 | 50.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 28,810 | 10.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25,396 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 24,945 | 11.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 15,000 | 20.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 12,680 | 25.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,700 | 11.9 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,140 | 13.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 5,100 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,900 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 4,700 | 44.5 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 | 56726 | 70 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Greenbush. 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.