In 2025, fire departments serving Sioux Rapids responded to 13 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $4K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 92% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
45 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $106K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022 | 8 | — | |
| 2023 | 10 | +25.0% | |
| 2024 | 13 | +30.0% | |
| 2025 | 13 | +0.0% |
* Well below Sioux Rapids'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 5 building fires Sioux Rapids departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 10 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 | Storage area, other | 3 | 30.0% | |
| 2 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Structural area, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 1 | 10.0% |
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 Sioux Rapids mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat source: other | 3 | 30.0% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 3 | 30.0% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 1 | 10.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Sioux Rapids departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sioux Rapids sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,441 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 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 600 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 401 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 226 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 220 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 215 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 155 | 31.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 145 | 16.7 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 | 50585 | 45 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Sioux Rapids. 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.