In 2025, fire departments serving Preston responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 80% of all calls.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
66 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 17 | — | |
| 2022* | 6 | — | |
| 2023 | 12 | — | |
| 2024 | 16 | +33.3% | |
| 2025 | 15 | -6.2% |
* Well below Preston'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 Preston departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 25 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 | 11 | 44.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Interior stairway or ramp | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 5 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Switchgear area, transformer vault | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 12.0% |
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 Preston mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 15 | 60.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 12.0% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Preston sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,992 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,200 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 37.4 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 295 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 195 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 166 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 45.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 124 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 37.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 85 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 85 | 43.3 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 | 55965 | 66 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Preston. 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.