In 2025, fire departments serving Minneapolis responded to 2,799 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M 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 66% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
15,272 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $47.2M cumulative property loss. 6 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3,320 | — | |
| 2022 | 3,407 | +2.6% | |
| 2023 | 3,194 | -6.3% | |
| 2024 | 2,552 | -20.1% | |
| 2025 | 2,799 | +9.7% |
For the 70 building fires Minneapolis departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2,522 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 | 498 | 19.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 309 | 12.3% | |
| 3 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 163 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 132 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Other | 110 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 109 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 101 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 89 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 86 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 86 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 839 | 33.3% |
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 Minneapolis mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,403 | 55.6% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 189 | 7.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 150 | 5.9% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 94 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 85 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 70 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 65 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 57 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 55 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 50 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 304 | 12.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Minneapolis departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 66% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Outside equipment fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $528,250 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $367,776 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $289,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $263,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $173,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Minneapolis sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
178 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 17 | |
| 30-39 | 46 | |
| 40-49 | 45 | |
| 50-59 | 57 | |
| 60-69 | 5 | |
| 70-79 | 4 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 18,124 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 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,550 | 23.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 1,299 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,000 | 9.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 420 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 336 | 22.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 320 | 44.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 306 | 20.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 280 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 260 | 32.2 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 13.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 248 | 27.5 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
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.