In 2025, fire departments serving Hamburg responded to 20 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.1M 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 95% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
45 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022* | 3 | — | |
| 2023 | 7 | — | |
| 2024 | 12 | +71.4% | |
| 2025 | 20 | +66.7% |
* Well below Hamburg'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 8 building fires Hamburg departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Assembly area without fixed seats - 100+ persons | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Hamburg mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 14.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hamburg departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,050,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $285,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hamburg sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,108 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 17.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,020 | 36.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 600 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 34.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 476 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | 443 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 300 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 265 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 260 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 240 | 31.9 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 | 51640 | 45 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Hamburg. 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.