In 2025, fire departments serving Olin responded to 15 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 87% of all calls.
Apr peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
56 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $231K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 15 | — | |
| 2023* | 6 | — | |
| 2024 | 15 | — | |
| 2025 | 15 | +0.0% |
* Well below Olin'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 Olin 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 6 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 4 | 19.0% | |
| 3 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Equipment or service area, other | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 6 | Function area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 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 Olin mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 4.8% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Olin sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,902 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 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 640 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 29.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 19.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 165 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 160 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 11.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 120 | 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 | 52320 | 56 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Olin. 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.