In 2025, fire departments serving Mason City responded to 272 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $600K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,284 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $4.7M cumulative property loss. 6 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 222 | — | |
| 2022 | 243 | +9.5% | |
| 2023 | 285 | +17.3% | |
| 2024 | 262 | -8.1% | |
| 2025 | 272 | +3.8% |
For the 40 building fires Mason City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 367 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 | 49 | 13.4% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 40 | 10.9% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 24 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 23 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 18 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 17 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 14 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 14 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 13 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 10 | 2.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 145 | 39.5% |
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 Mason City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 96 | 26.2% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 53 | 14.4% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 39 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 35 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 20 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 13 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 12 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 12 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 10 | 2.7% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 9 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 68 | 18.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mason City departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 81% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $600,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $58,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $48,140 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mason City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
23 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 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 5 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,087 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 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 25.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 177 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 32.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 19.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 85 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 85 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 22.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 65 | 37.8 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 | 50401 | 1,284 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Mason City. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Mason City.
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.