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2025 County Report

Fires in Clarke County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Clarke County responded to 86 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $80K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

6,286 residents FIPS 19039 10 cities · 3 fire depts
Total incidents
86
358 across 5 years
Building fires
16
46 wildland
Property loss
$961K
$101K structure · $860K 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 78% of all calls.

86
Total Incidents
Grass fire 24 27.9%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 19 22.1%
Building fires 16 18.6%
Passenger vehicle fire 4 4.7%
Carbon monoxide incident 4 4.7%
All other categories 19 22.1%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Clarke County?

Mar peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 19
Feb 6
Mar 22
Apr 5
May 6
Jun 2
Jul 3
Aug 4
Sep 10
Oct 2
Nov 6
Dec 1
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Clarke County

358 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 51
2022 105
2023 44
2024 72
2025 86
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 16 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
58%
14
Cause undetermined
4%
1
Intentional / arson
21%
5
Equipment / heat source failure
12%
3
Under investigation
4%
1
Act of nature (lightning)
1%
0
05 The biggest fires

5 fires · $101K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Clarke County during 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $80,000 City of Osceola Building fires Significant
2 $10,000 City of Osceola Building fires Significant
3 $10,000 City of Osceola Building fires Significant
4 $1,000 City of Osceola Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
5 $1 City of Osceola Building fires Significant
06 How Clarke County compares

Clarke County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

13.68
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Clarke County
13.68
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
2.55
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Clarke County
2.55
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Clarke County
0
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Clarke County

10 cities mapped to FIPS 19039.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Clarke County

3 departments report from this county.

OSCEOLA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 20002 44 incidents
WOODBURN FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 20003 38 incidents
MURRAY FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 20001 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.