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2025 County Report

Fires in Adams County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Adams County responded to 32 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $5K property loss.

2,018 residents FIPS 19003 14 cities · 3 fire depts
Total incidents
32
113 across 5 years
Building fires
3
21 wildland
Property loss
$10K
$5K structure · $5K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Grass fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 84% of all calls.

32
Total Incidents
Grass fire 11 34.4%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 9 28.1%
Building fires 3 9.4%
Fire, other 2 6.2%
Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire 2 6.2%
All other categories 5 15.6%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Adams County?

Mar peaks. Jun dips.

Jan 3
Feb 3
Mar 7
Apr 1
May 2
Jun 0
Jul 5
Aug 2
Sep 2
Oct 4
Nov 3
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Adams County

113 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 21
2022 23
2023 20
2024 17
2025 32
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 3 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
17%
1
Cause undetermined
67%
4
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
17%
1
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
-1%
0
05 The biggest fires

1 fires · $5K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Adams County during 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $5,000 City of Nodaway Outside equipment fire Significant
06 How Adams County compares

Adams County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

15.86
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Adams County
15.86
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
1.49
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Adams County
1.49
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Adams County
0
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Adams County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 19003.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Adams County

3 departments report from this county.

PRESCOTT FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 02004 35 incidents
CORNING FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 02002 0 incidents
NODAWAY FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 02003 0 incidents
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in IA

Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 IAWTR-FY19-RX-Dunbar Slough 2019 FWS 759
2 IANSR-FY19-RX-Highpoint Savanna 2019 FWS 737
3 IANSR-FY19-RX-N. Bison/Henslow hill 2019 FWS 482
4 Upper Iowa River Wildfire 2024 FWS 465
5 Cornland Wildfire 2018 FWS 402
6 Bottoms WF 2021 PRI 353
7 Crane Lake WF 2021 State 349
8 IAWTR-FY19-RX-Union Hills North 2019 FWS 315
9 Schott WF 2018 FWS 314
10 IAWTR-FY19-RX-Errington Marsh 2019 FWS 304

About this data

County-level NFIRS aggregates for 2025, plus 5-year totals across 2021–2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Wildfire risk score (0–100) and Expected Annual Loss come from FEMA's National Risk Index. Drought class is the most recent USDM classification (D0 = abnormally dry through D4 = exceptional drought). Historical fire perimeters are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.