In 2025, fire departments serving Mankato responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $125K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Feb peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
59 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $377K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022 | 10 | — | |
| 2023 | 18 | +80.0% | |
| 2024 | 15 | -16.7% | |
| 2025 | 12 | -20.0% |
* Well below Mankato'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 Mankato departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2 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 | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 50.0% |
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 Mankato mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 1 | 50.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mankato departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $125,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $35,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,200 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $600 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $500 | Fuel burner/boiler malfunction, fire confined | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $500 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mankato sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,662 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 | 2,000 | 43.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 1,500 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 1,500 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,100 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Smoking | 660 | 26.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 640 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 550 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 21.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 450 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Smoking | 300 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Smoking | 300 | 17.8 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Mankato. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Mankato.
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.