In 2025, fire departments serving Moorhead responded to 214 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $400K 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 66% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,093 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $6.1M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 184 | — | |
| 2022 | 192 | +4.3% | |
| 2023 | 292 | +52.1% | |
| 2024 | 211 | -27.7% | |
| 2025 | 214 | +1.4% |
For the 47 building fires Moorhead departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 362 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 67 | 18.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 35 | 9.7% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 33 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 32 | 8.8% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 20 | 5.5% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 14 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 12 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 12 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 11 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 11 | 3.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 115 | 31.8% |
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 Moorhead mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 168 | 46.4% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 49 | 13.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 31 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 25 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 16 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 16 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 12 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 10 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 7 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Incendiary device | 6 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 22 | 6.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Moorhead departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 82% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $112,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $16,100 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Moorhead sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 26,588 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,855 | 30.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,425 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 1,593 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1,540 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 1,381 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,200 | 20.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,185 | 42.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,155 | 14.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,122 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,000 | 42.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 990 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 950 | 41.0 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 | 56560 | 1,093 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Moorhead. 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.