In 2025, fire departments serving North Liberty responded to 29 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 79% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
166 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $100 cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 36 | — | |
| 2022 | 36 | +0.0% | |
| 2023 | 36 | +0.0% | |
| 2024 | 29 | -19.4% | |
| 2025 | 29 | +0.0% |
For the 1 building fires North Liberty departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 21 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 | 13 | 61.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 4 | 19.0% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.8% |
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 North Liberty mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 17 | 81.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 4.8% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. North Liberty sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,503 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 396 | 44.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 341 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 291 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 274 | 43.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 253 | 45.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 244 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 216 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 204 | 45.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 191 | 44.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 190 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 187 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 182 | 42.0 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 | 46554 | 166 |
Six Indiana cities with population within ±25% of North Liberty. 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.