In 2025, fire departments serving Palo responded to 19 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $20K building blaze. 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 79% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
97 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $892K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 6 | — | |
| 2022 | 20 | — | |
| 2023 | 22 | +10.0% | |
| 2024 | 30 | +36.4% | |
| 2025 | 19 | -36.7% |
* Well below Palo'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 3 building fires Palo departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 39 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 | Outside area, other | 11 | 28.2% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 12.8% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 4 | 10.3% | |
| 4 | Other | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Function area, other | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 8 | 20.5% |
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 Palo mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 12 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 8 | 20.5% | |
| 3 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 6 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Palo departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $20,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Palo sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,905 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 824 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 402 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 360 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 316 | 25.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 29.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 228 | 24.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 17.2 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Palo. 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.