In 2025, fire departments serving Neola responded to 19 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
131 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $216K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022* | 14 | — | |
| 2023 | 68 | — | |
| 2024 | 27 | -60.3% | |
| 2025 | 19 | -29.6% |
* Well below Neola'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 0 building fires Neola departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 59 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 | 28 | 47.5% | |
| 2 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 6 | 10.2% | |
| 3 | Other | 3 | 5.1% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 3 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 5.1% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Separate operator/control area of transportation | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 4 | 6.8% |
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 Neola mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 20 | 33.9% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 10 | 16.9% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 9 | 15.3% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 6 | 10.2% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 6.8% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Lightning | 3 | 5.1% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 1 | 1.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Neola sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,266 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 715 | 29.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 480 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 340 | 29.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 340 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 300 | 22.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 260 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 27.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 38.1 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 | 51559 | 131 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Neola. 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.