In 2025, fire departments serving Sheffield responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 89% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
34 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $40K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023* | 2 | — | |
| 2024 | 14 | — | |
| 2025 | 18 | +28.6% |
* Well below Sheffield'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 Sheffield departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6 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 | Outside area, other | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 16.7% |
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 Sheffield mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 16.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sheffield sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,340 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 750 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 500 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 100 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 90 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 85 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 85 | 39.8 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 | 50475 | 34 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Sheffield. 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.