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2025 County Report

Fires in Franklin County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Franklin County responded to 44 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $8K property loss.

7,365 residents FIPS 19069 13 cities · 9 fire depts
Total incidents
44
82 across 5 years
Building fires
4
15 wildland
Property loss
$8K
$8K structure · $0 contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.

44
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 7 15.9%
Grass fire 7 15.9%
Fire, other 4 9.1%
Building fires 4 9.1%
Authorized controlled burning 4 9.1%
All other categories 18 40.9%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Franklin County?

Apr peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 5
Feb 2
Mar 3
Apr 10
May 6
Jun 4
Jul 1
Aug 1
Sep 4
Oct 7
Nov 1
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Franklin County

82 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 0
2022 2
2023 4
2024 32
2025 44
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 4 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
29%
4
Cause undetermined
14%
2
Intentional / arson
21%
3
Equipment / heat source failure
36%
5
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

1 fires · $8K in losses

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

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $8,000 City of Hampton Building fires Significant
06 How Franklin County compares

Franklin County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

5.97
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Franklin County
5.97
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
0.54
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Franklin County
0.54
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Franklin County
0
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Franklin County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 19069.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Franklin County

9 departments report from this county.

SHEFFIELD FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 35009 19 incidents
HAMPTON FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 35005 10 incidents
BRADFORDGRANTLEE TWSP FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 35002 8 incidents
LATIMER FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 35007 7 incidents
COULTER FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 35003 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.