In 2025, fire departments serving Lakeville responded to 195 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $900K 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 56% of all calls.
May peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,048 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $6.8M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 225 | — | |
| 2022 | 208 | -7.6% | |
| 2023 | 219 | +5.3% | |
| 2024 | 201 | -8.2% | |
| 2025 | 195 | -3.0% |
For the 23 building fires Lakeville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 247 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 | 47 | 19.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 26 | 10.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 25 | 10.1% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 20 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 16 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 14 | 5.7% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 11 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 9 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 9 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 7 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 63 | 25.5% |
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 Lakeville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 135 | 54.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 23 | 9.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 15 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 3.2% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 6 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 4 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 33 | 13.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lakeville departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 87% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $900,000 | Aircraft fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $356,300 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $105,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $85,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lakeville sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 19,661 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 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,909 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,550 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,000 | 10.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 420 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 336 | 42.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 306 | 40.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 290 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 260 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 248 | 46.5 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 Lakeville. 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.