In 2025, fire departments serving Ossian responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $75K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
34 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $455K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 6 | — | |
| 2022 | 11 | +83.3% | |
| 2023* | 4 | — | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 11 | — |
* Well below Ossian'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 Ossian departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 10 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 | 3 | 30.0% | |
| 2 | Exterior, exposed surface | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 1 | 10.0% |
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 Ossian mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 30.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ossian departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ossian sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,129 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 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 11.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 14.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 195 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 189 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 166 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 165 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 140 | 11.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 124 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 120 | 35.5 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 | 52161 | 34 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Ossian. 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.