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2025 County Report

Fires in Johnson County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Johnson County responded to 829 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $400K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

131,809 residents FIPS 19103 24 cities · 9 fire depts
Total incidents
829
2,918 across 5 years
Building fires
88
110 wildland
Property loss
$2.2M
$1.7M structure · $491K contents
Casualties
0 / 7
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 7 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 37% of all calls.

829
Total Incidents
Building fires 88 10.6%
Unauthorized burning 60 7.2%
Carbon monoxide incident 56 6.8%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 53 6.4%
Cooking fire, confined to container 51 6.2%
All other categories 521 62.8%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Johnson County?

Mar peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 65
Feb 54
Mar 139
Apr 96
May 80
Jun 56
Jul 82
Aug 61
Sep 74
Oct 49
Nov 47
Dec 26
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Johnson County

2,918 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 310
2022 343
2023 806
2024 630
2025 829
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 88 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
41%
62
Cause undetermined
24%
37
Intentional / arson
6%
9
Equipment / heat source failure
21%
32
Under investigation
3%
5
Act of nature (lightning)
5%
7
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.3M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Johnson County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 76% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $400,000 Iowa City Building fires Major
2 $300,000 Solon Building fires Major
3 $150,000 Iowa City Building fires Significant
4 $150,000 Solon Building fires Significant
5 $100,000 Iowa City Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
6 $50,000 Iowa City Building fires Significant
7 $50,000 Iowa City Building fires Significant
8 $43,000 Coralville Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
9 $40,000 Iowa City Passenger vehicle fire Significant
10 $40,000 NORTH LIBERTY Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire Significant
06 How Johnson County compares

Johnson County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

6.29
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Johnson County
6.29
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
0.67
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Johnson County
0.67
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Johnson County
0
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Johnson County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 19103.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Johnson County

9 departments report from this county.

IOWA CITY FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 52003 254 incidents
CORALVILLE FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 52001 189 incidents 32 vol
NORTH LIBERTY FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 52005 129 incidents
TIFFIN FIRE DEPT
Tiffin
FDID 52010 72 incidents 26 vol
SOLON FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 52008 56 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.