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2025 County Report

Fires in Audubon County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Audubon County responded to 60 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $85K property loss.

3,404 residents FIPS 19009 13 cities · 5 fire depts
Total incidents
60
232 across 5 years
Building fires
7
16 wildland
Property loss
$466K
$246K structure · $220K 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 68% of all calls.

60
Total Incidents
Grass fire 12 20.0%
Cultivated grain or crop fire 11 18.3%
Building fires 7 11.7%
Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire 7 11.7%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 4 6.7%
All other categories 19 31.7%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Audubon County?

Feb peaks. Jun dips.

Jan 6
Feb 8
Mar 8
Apr 7
May 7
Jun 2
Jul 3
Aug 3
Sep 7
Oct 4
Nov 3
Dec 2
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Audubon County

232 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 17
2022 60
2023 35
2024 60
2025 60
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 7 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
92%
22
Cause undetermined
4%
1
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
4%
1
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

6 fires · $246K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Audubon County during 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $85,000 City of Audubon Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
2 $75,000 Hamlin Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
3 $35,640 Hamlin Building fires Significant
4 $25,000 Hamlin Building fires Significant
5 $20,000 City of Audubon Cultivated grain or crop fire Significant
6 $5,000 City of Audubon Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire Significant
06 How Audubon County compares

Audubon County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

17.63
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Audubon County
17.63
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
2.06
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Audubon County
2.06
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Audubon County
0
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Audubon County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 19009.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Audubon County

5 departments report from this county.

AUDUBON FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 05001 32 incidents
EXIRA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 05003 19 incidents
BRAYTON FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 05002 9 incidents
KIMBALLTON FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 05005 9 incidents
GRAY FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 05004 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.