In 2025, fire departments serving Merrill responded to 20 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K 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 90% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
53 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022 | 15 | — | |
| 2023 | 9 | -40.0% | |
| 2024* | 6 | — | |
| 2025 | 20 | — |
* Well below Merrill'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 Merrill departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Storage area, other | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Switchgear area, transformer vault | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Merrill mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 1 | 14.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Merrill departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $7,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Merrill sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,745 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1,100 | 47.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Smoking | 800 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Fireworks | 680 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 650 | 43.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 582 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 560 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 480 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 470 | 39.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 375 | 43.7 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 | 51038 | 53 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Merrill. 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.