In 2025, fire departments serving Remsen responded to 22 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1K 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 86% of all calls.
Oct peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
59 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022 | 11 | — | |
| 2023 | 9 | -18.2% | |
| 2024 | 15 | +66.7% | |
| 2025 | 22 | +46.7% |
* Well below Remsen'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 Remsen departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 24 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 | 10 | 41.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 4 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Equipment or service area, other | 3 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Multiple areas | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Corridor, mall | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 4.2% |
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 Remsen mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 41.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Match | 1 | 4.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Remsen departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Remsen sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 7,391 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 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 600 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 560 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 480 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 350 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 250 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 220 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 214 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 9.3 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 36.6 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 | 51050 | 59 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Remsen. 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.