In 2025, fire departments serving Manly responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 70% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
39 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $94K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022 | 5 | — | |
| 2023 | 7 | +40.0% | |
| 2024 | 14 | +100.0% | |
| 2025 | 10 | -28.6% |
* Well below Manly'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 1 building fires Manly departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 11 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 | Undetermined | 3 | 27.3% | |
| 2 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Storage area, other | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 9.1% |
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 Manly mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 18.2% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 1 | 9.1% | |
| 8 | Conducted heat from another fire | 1 | 9.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Manly departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Manly sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,909 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 750 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 17.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 177 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 9.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 85 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 65 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 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 | 50456 | 39 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Manly. 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.