In 2025, fire departments serving Underwood responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1 building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 87% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
115 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $120K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022* | 7 | — | |
| 2023 | 42 | — | |
| 2024 | 48 | +14.3% | |
| 2025 | 15 | -68.8% |
* Well below Underwood'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 1 building fires Underwood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 31 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 | 18 | 58.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 16.1% | |
| 3 | Other | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Wall assembly | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 3.2% |
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 Underwood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 18 | 58.1% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 5 | 16.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 5 | 16.1% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 3.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Underwood departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Underwood sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,176 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 2,000 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 715 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 22.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 480 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 340 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 340 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 300 | 16.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 260 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 24.1 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 | 51576 | 115 |
Six Iowa cities with population within ±25% of Underwood. 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.