In 2025, fire departments serving Taylors Falls responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 93% of all calls.
May peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
35 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $2.6M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 6 | — | |
| 2022* | 1 | — | |
| 2023* | 2 | — | |
| 2024 | 11 | — | |
| 2025 | 15 | +36.4% |
* Well below Taylors Falls'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 3 building fires Taylors Falls departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 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 | Undetermined | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Interior stairway or ramp | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Roof surface: exterior | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 8 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 11.1% |
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 Taylors Falls mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 55.6% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Lightning | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 11.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Taylors Falls departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $471,500 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $250,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $116,700 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Taylors Falls sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 19,712 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 8,513 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,550 | 23.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1,350 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,000 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 835 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 656 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 420 | 24.4 mi | |
| 2004 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 358 | 39.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 336 | 30.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 335 | 44.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 306 | 32.2 mi | |
| 2004 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 298 | 41.1 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Taylors Falls. 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.