In 2025, fire departments serving Ruthven responded to 19 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $60K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 79% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
37 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $75K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024 | 18 | — | |
| 2025 | 19 | +5.6% |
* Well below Ruthven'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 Ruthven departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 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 | 5 | 55.6% | |
| 2 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 1 | 11.1% |
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 Ruthven mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 3 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 1 | 11.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ruthven departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $60,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ruthven sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,735 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 700 | 3.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 401 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 226 | 19.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 215 | 26.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 18.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 13.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 155 | 21.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 152 | 39.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 145 | 9.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 127 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 28.5 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 | 51358 | 37 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Ruthven. 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.