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2025 County Report

Fires in Jefferson County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Jefferson County responded to 206 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $30K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

11,695 residents FIPS 19101 19 cities · 5 fire depts
Total incidents
206
784 across 5 years
Building fires
10
32 wildland
Property loss
$106K
$103K structure · $3K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Top five categories make up about 73% of all calls.

206
Total Incidents
Authorized controlled burning 99 48.1%
Grass fire 19 9.2%
Passenger vehicle fire 12 5.8%
Building fires 10 4.9%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 10 4.9%
All other categories 56 27.2%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Jefferson County?

Mar peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 19
Feb 7
Mar 67
Apr 37
May 10
Jun 6
Jul 12
Aug 8
Sep 9
Oct 12
Nov 16
Dec 3
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Jefferson County

784 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 86
2022 128
2023 151
2024 213
2025 206
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 10 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
32%
8
Cause undetermined
24%
6
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
32%
8
Under investigation
8%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
4%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $99K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Jefferson County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 95% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $30,000 City of Fairfield Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle Significant
2 $12,000 City of Fairfield Building fires Significant
3 $12,000 City of Fairfield Passenger vehicle fire Significant
4 $10,000 City of Fairfield Grass fire Significant
5 $8,000 City of Fairfield Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
6 $8,000 City of Fairfield Passenger vehicle fire Significant
7 $8,000 City of Fairfield Passenger vehicle fire Significant
8 $5,000 City of Fairfield Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $3,500 City of Batavia Passenger vehicle fire Significant
10 $2,000 City of Fairfield Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Jefferson County compares

Jefferson County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

17.61
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Jefferson County
17.61
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
0.86
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Jefferson County
0.86
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Jefferson County
0
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Jefferson County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 19101.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Jefferson County

5 departments report from this county.

FAIRFIELD FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 51002 187 incidents
BATAVIA FIRE DEPT
Batavia
FDID 51001 16 incidents 15 vol
PACKWOODPOLK PACKWOOD FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 51005 6 incidents
LIBERTYVILLE FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 51003 0 incidents
LOCKRIDGE FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 51004 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.