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2025 County Report

Fires in Chickasaw County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Chickasaw County responded to 146 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $600K property loss.

7,124 residents FIPS 19037 19 cities · 7 fire depts
Total incidents
146
477 across 5 years
Building fires
32
59 wildland
Property loss
$4.2M
$3.2M structure · $1.1M contents
Casualties
0 / 2
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 2 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Grass fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.

146
Total Incidents
Grass fire 36 24.7%
Building fires 32 21.9%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 20 13.7%
Passenger vehicle fire 7 4.8%
Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire 5 3.4%
All other categories 46 31.5%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Chickasaw County?

Mar peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 21
Feb 11
Mar 30
Apr 30
May 9
Jun 6
Jul 6
Aug 3
Sep 1
Oct 11
Nov 11
Dec 7
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Chickasaw County

477 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 65
2022 72
2023 78
2024 116
2025 146
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 32 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
60%
35
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
28%
16
Equipment / heat source failure
7%
4
Under investigation
3%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
2%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $2.6M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Chickasaw County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 81% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $600,000 City of Lawler Building fires Major
2 $500,000 City of Lawler Building fires Major
3 $250,000 City of New Hampton Building fires Major
4 $250,000 City of New Hampton Fires in structures other than in a building Major
5 $200,000 City of Nashua Building fires Significant
6 $200,000 City of Nashua Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
7 $175,000 City of Fredericksbu Building fires Significant
8 $150,000 City of Nashua Building fires Significant
9 $150,000 City of Nashua Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
10 $100,000 City of Fredericksbu Building fires Significant
06 How Chickasaw County compares

Chickasaw County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

20.49
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Chickasaw County
20.49
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
4.49
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Chickasaw County
4.49
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Chickasaw County
0
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Chickasaw County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 19037.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Chickasaw County

7 departments report from this county.

NEW HAMPTON FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 19007 39 incidents
FREDERICKSBURG FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 19003 28 incidents
NASHUA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 19006 23 incidents
IONIA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 19004 18 incidents 15 vol
LAWLER FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 19005 18 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.