In 2025, fire departments serving Paullina responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 73% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
41 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $51K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022 | 16 | — | |
| 2023 | 11 | -31.2% | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 11 | — |
* Well below Paullina'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 Paullina 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 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 Paullina mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 30.0% | |
| 2 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 7 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 10.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Paullina sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 6,440 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 700 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 350 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 226 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 220 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 215 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 214 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 12.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 160 | 39.4 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 | 51046 | 41 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Paullina. 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.