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2025 County Report

Fires in Crawford County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Crawford County responded to 88 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $20K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

12,466 residents FIPS 19047 18 cities · 11 fire depts
Total incidents
88
293 across 5 years
Building fires
11
20 wildland
Property loss
$102K
$71K structure · $31K 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 56% of all calls.

88
Total Incidents
Grass fire 13 14.8%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 13 14.8%
Building fires 11 12.5%
Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire 7 8.0%
Arcing, shorted electrical equipment 5 5.7%
All other categories 39 44.3%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Crawford County?

Apr peaks. Feb dips.

Jan 4
Feb 3
Mar 11
Apr 16
May 3
Jun 5
Jul 10
Aug 6
Sep 6
Oct 10
Nov 10
Dec 4
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Crawford County

293 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 19
2022 59
2023 50
2024 77
2025 88
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 11 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
74%
17
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
13%
3
Under investigation
4%
1
Act of nature (lightning)
9%
2
05 The biggest fires

5 fires · $71K in losses

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

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $20,000 City of Charter Oak Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
2 $20,000 Denison Building fires Significant
3 $15,000 Denison Outside equipment fire Significant
4 $8,000 City of Charter Oak Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
5 $7,500 Denison Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Crawford County compares

Crawford County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

7.06
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Crawford County
7.06
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
0.88
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Crawford County
0.88
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Crawford County
0
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Crawford County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 19047.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Crawford County

11 departments report from this county.

DENISON FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 24006 49 incidents
MANILLA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 24009 22 incidents
CHARTER OAK FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 24004 15 incidents
WESTSIDE FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 24013 4 incidents
DELOIT FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 24005 1 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.