In 2025, fire departments serving Kingsley responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
69 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $123K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022 | 13 | — | |
| 2023* | 5 | — | |
| 2024 | 30 | — | |
| 2025 | 17 | -43.3% |
* Well below Kingsley'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 0 building fires Kingsley departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 8 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 | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Storage area, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 1 | 12.5% |
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 Kingsley mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 1 | 12.5% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kingsley sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,328 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1,100 | 40.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Smoking | 800 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Fireworks | 680 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 650 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 600 | 33.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 582 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 560 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 39.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 480 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 480 | 38.6 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 | 51028 | 69 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Kingsley. 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.