In 2025, fire departments serving Peosta responded to 38 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $15K 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 50% of all calls.
Apr peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
118 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $334K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022 | 18 | — | |
| 2023 | 30 | +66.7% | |
| 2024 | 29 | -3.3% | |
| 2025 | 38 | +31.0% |
* Well below Peosta'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 Peosta departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 26 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 | 4 | 15.4% | |
| 2 | Other | 3 | 11.5% | |
| 3 | Equipment or service area, other | 3 | 11.5% | |
| 4 | Machinery room or area; elevator machinery room | 3 | 11.5% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Storage area, other | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Service facilities, other | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 6 | 23.1% |
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 Peosta mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 15.4% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 4 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 11.5% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 11.5% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 2 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Match | 2 | 7.7% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 3.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Peosta departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $15,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $12,600 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $8,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $2,000 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Peosta sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,004 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 189 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 165 | 19.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 125 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 100 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Natural | 75 | 31.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 65 | 47.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 62 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 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 | 52068 | 118 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Peosta. 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.