In 2025, fire departments serving Guttenberg responded to 26 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 81% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
87 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $477K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 12 | — | |
| 2022 | 24 | +100.0% | |
| 2023 | 22 | -8.3% | |
| 2024* | 3 | — | |
| 2025 | 26 | — |
* Well below Guttenberg'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 1 building fires Guttenberg departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 23 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 | 8 | 34.8% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 26.1% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 1 | 4.3% |
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 Guttenberg mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 12 | 52.2% | |
| 2 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Conducted heat from another fire | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Multiple heat sources including multiple ignitions | 1 | 4.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Guttenberg sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,907 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,400 | 50.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 189 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 165 | 7.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 140 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 120 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 100 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 85 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 49.8 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 | 52052 | 87 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Guttenberg. 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.