In 2025, fire departments serving Hastings responded to 136 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 71% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
761 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $4.4M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 139 | — | |
| 2022 | 181 | +30.2% | |
| 2023 | 172 | -5.0% | |
| 2024 | 133 | -22.7% | |
| 2025 | 136 | +2.3% |
For the 21 building fires Hastings departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 172 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 | 25 | 14.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 22 | 12.8% | |
| 3 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 16 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 11 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 8 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 8 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 5 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 5 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 61 | 35.5% |
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 Hastings mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 71 | 41.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 18 | 10.5% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 13 | 7.6% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 10 | 5.8% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 9 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 4.1% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 6 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Radiated heat from another fire | 6 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 20 | 11.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hastings departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 97% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hastings sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
8 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 16,320 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 8,513 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,550 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,000 | 19.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 420 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 336 | 44.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 306 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 260 | 23.8 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 248 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 225 | 39.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 217 | 34.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 21.1 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Hastings. 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.