In 2025, fire departments serving Walker responded to 14 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K 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.
May peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
93 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $4.9M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 9 | — | |
| 2022 | 20 | — | |
| 2023 | 33 | +65.0% | |
| 2024 | 17 | -48.5% | |
| 2025 | 14 | -17.6% |
* Well below Walker'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 Walker departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 24 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 | 12 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Swimming pool | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 4.2% |
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 Walker mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 16 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 3 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 4.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Walker departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Walker sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 16,874 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,100 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,520 | 37.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,242 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 535 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 452 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 393 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 360 | 46.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 360 | 20.6 mi | |
| 1992 | Debris and open burning | 357 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 350 | 24.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 342 | 30.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 342 | 46.3 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 | 56484 | 93 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Walker. 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.