In 2025, fire departments serving Muscatine responded to 181 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K 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 54% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
919 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $3.5M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 137 | — | |
| 2022 | 160 | +16.8% | |
| 2023 | 194 | +21.2% | |
| 2024 | 247 | +27.3% | |
| 2025 | 181 | -26.7% |
For the 31 building fires Muscatine departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 287 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 | Undetermined | 49 | 17.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 37 | 12.9% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 34 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 30 | 10.5% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 12 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 10 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 10 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 9 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 9 | 3.1% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 9 | 3.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 78 | 27.2% |
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 Muscatine mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 119 | 41.5% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 32 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 21 | 7.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 19 | 6.6% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 18 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 15 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 11 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 10 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 7 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 24 | 8.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Muscatine departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 89% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $79,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $77,280 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $49,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Fire in mobile prop. used as a fixed struc., other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Muscatine sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
22 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 4 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,931 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 | 1,500 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,200 | 11.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 832 | 11.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 820 | 11.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 640 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 630 | 11.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 19.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 333 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 282 | 11.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 232 | 11.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 195 | 46.4 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 | 52761 | 919 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Muscatine. 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.