In 2025, fire departments serving Owatonna responded to 174 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
600 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $3.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 138 | — | |
| 2022 | 153 | +10.9% | |
| 2023* | 5 | — | |
| 2024 | 130 | — | |
| 2025 | 174 | +33.8% |
* Well below Owatonna'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 8 building fires Owatonna departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 130 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 | 39 | 30.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 38 | 29.2% | |
| 3 | Wall surface: exterior | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 6 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Outside area, other | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 25 | 19.2% |
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 Owatonna mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 75 | 57.7% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 10 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 8 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Heat, spark from friction | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 2 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 12 | 9.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Owatonna departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 75% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $95,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $65,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $40,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Owatonna sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,787 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,909 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 31.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 290 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 225 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 43.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 180 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 177 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 144 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 120 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 38.3 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 | 55060 | 600 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Owatonna. 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.