In 2025, fire departments serving Oronoco responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $105K 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 90% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
27 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $622K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 8 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024 | 7 | — | |
| 2025 | 10 | +42.9% |
* Well below Oronoco'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 4 building fires Oronoco departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 8 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 | 3 | 37.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Wall assembly | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Fuel tank, fuel line | 1 | 12.5% |
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 Oronoco mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 12.5% | |
| 6 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 12.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Oronoco departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $105,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $3,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $2,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,050 | Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Oronoco sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,726 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 295 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 225 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 83 | 24.3 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 83 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 75 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 60 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 44.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 33.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 55 | 10.9 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 | 55960 | 27 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Oronoco. 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.