In 2025, fire departments serving Waverly responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 87% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
65 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $339K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 11 | — | |
| 2022 | 16 | +45.5% | |
| 2023 | 20 | +25.0% | |
| 2024* | 3 | — | |
| 2025 | 15 | — |
* Well below Waverly'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 Waverly departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 14 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 21.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 9 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 7.1% |
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 Waverly mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 21.4% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 9 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 7.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Waverly departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Waverly sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 18,517 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 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,550 | 44.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 1,299 | 31.1 mi | |
| 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,000 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Smoking | 420 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 336 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 320 | 42.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 320 | 31.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 306 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 280 | 37.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 260 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 250 | 37.6 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 | 55390 | 65 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Waverly. 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.