In 2025, fire departments serving Sioux City responded to 672 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 56% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
3,267 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $12.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 562 | — | |
| 2022 | 560 | -0.4% | |
| 2023 | 611 | +9.1% | |
| 2024 | 862 | +41.1% | |
| 2025 | 672 | -22.0% |
For the 48 building fires Sioux City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 932 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 136 | 14.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 128 | 13.7% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 86 | 9.2% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 50 | 5.4% | |
| 5 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 41 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 41 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 39 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 35 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 33 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 30 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 313 | 33.6% |
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 Sioux City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 437 | 46.9% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 58 | 6.2% | |
| 3 | Fireworks | 46 | 4.9% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 46 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 42 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 41 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 37 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 36 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 35 | 3.8% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 31 | 3.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 123 | 13.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sioux City departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 69% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $500,000 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $112,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $60,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sioux City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
11 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 5 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,328 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 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1,100 | 32.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Smoking | 800 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Fireworks | 680 | 23.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 650 | 26.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 600 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 582 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 560 | 11.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 27.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 500 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 480 | 19.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 480 | 39.0 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Sioux City. 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.