In 2025, fire departments serving Osage responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $80K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
50 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023 | 13 | — | |
| 2024 | 18 | +38.5% | |
| 2025 | 18 | +0.0% |
* Well below Osage'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 2 building fires Osage departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 46 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 | 30 | 65.2% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 3 | 6.5% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 6.5% |
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 Osage mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 42 | 91.3% | |
| 2 | Lightning | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 2.2% | |
| 4 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 2.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Osage departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $80,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $60,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $40,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Authorized controlled burning | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100 | Trash or rubbish fire, contained | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Osage sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,227 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 | 750 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 177 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 17.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 22.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 85 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 23.0 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 | 50461 | 50 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Osage. 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.