In 2025, fire departments serving State Center responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $60K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Passenger vehicle fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 77% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
88 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $333K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 10 | — | |
| 2022 | 19 | — | |
| 2023 | 28 | +47.4% | |
| 2024 | 14 | -50.0% | |
| 2025 | 17 | +21.4% |
* Well below State Center'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 0 building fires State Center departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 19 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 | 5 | 26.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 4 | 21.1% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 15.8% | |
| 4 | Other | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 8 | Roof surface: exterior | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 10 | Outside area, other | 1 | 5.3% |
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 State Center mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 52.6% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 5.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by State Center departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $60,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $7,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. State Center sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,598 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 700 | 20.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 402 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 200 | 26.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 175 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 175 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 160 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 26.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 150 | 24.8 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 | 50247 | 88 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of State Center. 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.