In 2025, fire departments serving Hiawatha responded to 40 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K 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 53% of all calls.
May peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
254 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $226K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 65 | — | |
| 2022 | 67 | +3.1% | |
| 2023 | 61 | -9.0% | |
| 2024* | 21 | — | |
| 2025 | 40 | — |
* Well below Hiawatha'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 2 building fires Hiawatha departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 96 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 | Outside area, other | 19 | 19.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 17 | 17.7% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 10 | 10.4% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 8 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 8 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 6 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Other | 5 | 5.2% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 5.2% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 4 | 4.2% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 11 | 11.5% |
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 Hiawatha mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 35 | 36.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 10 | 10.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 10.4% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 9.4% | |
| 5 | Chemical reaction | 8 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 9 | 9.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hiawatha departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $7,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $350 | Dumpster or other outside trash receptacle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hiawatha sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,289 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 824 | 27.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 402 | 33.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 360 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 316 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 228 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 22.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 175 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 40.7 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 | 52233 | 254 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Hiawatha. 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.