In 2025, fire departments serving Little Canada responded to 80 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
May peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
390 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.8M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 72 | — | |
| 2022 | 121 | +68.1% | |
| 2023 | 105 | -13.2% | |
| 2024* | 12 | — | |
| 2025 | 80 | — |
* Well below Little Canada'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 10 building fires Little Canada departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 85 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 | 22 | 25.9% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 9.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 7 | 8.2% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 5 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 5 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 4 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 4.7% | |
| 9 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 20 | 23.5% |
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 Little Canada mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 27 | 31.8% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 9 | 10.6% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 8.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 6 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 5 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 4.7% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 4.7% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 12 | 14.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Little Canada departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 97% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $2,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $750 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Little Canada sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 18,147 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 | 20.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,550 | 18.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 1,299 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,000 | 15.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 420 | 25.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 336 | 20.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 320 | 46.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 306 | 19.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 280 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 260 | 23.0 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 10.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 248 | 21.7 mi |
Top 5 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 Little Canada. 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.