In 2025, fire departments serving Mountain Lake responded to 29 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
45 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $155K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023* | 5 | — | |
| 2024 | 11 | — | |
| 2025 | 29 | +163.6% |
* Well below Mountain Lake'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 Mountain Lake departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 16 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 | 6 | 37.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 6.2% |
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 Mountain Lake mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 6.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mountain Lake departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Fire in mobile prop. used as a fixed struc., other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mountain Lake sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,444 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 226 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 215 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 155 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 152 | 19.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 127 | 9.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 96 | 9.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 95 | 16.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 40.9 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 | 56159 | 45 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Mountain Lake. 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.