In 2025, fire departments serving Stewartville responded to 31 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K 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 71% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
74 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $491K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 18 | — | |
| 2022 | 14 | -22.2% | |
| 2023* | 1 | — | |
| 2024 | 10 | — | |
| 2025 | 31 | +210.0% |
* Well below Stewartville'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 4 building fires Stewartville 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 36.8% | |
| 2 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 4 | Corridor, mall | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 9 | Wall assembly | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 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 Stewartville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 7 | 36.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 3 | 15.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 4 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 5 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 8 | Chemical, natural heat source, other | 1 | 5.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Stewartville departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Stewartville sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,765 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 295 | 39.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 177 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 83 | 40.8 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 83 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 80 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 65 | 37.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 65 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 26.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 55 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 54 | 22.1 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 | 55976 | 74 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Stewartville. 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.