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2025 County Report

Fires in Linn County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Linn County responded to 1,625 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $446K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

210,409 residents FIPS 19113 34 cities · 21 fire depts
Total incidents
1,625
7,606 across 5 years
Building fires
176
244 wildland
Property loss
$6.5M
$4.2M structure · $2.3M contents
Casualties
1 / 5
1 civ deaths · 3 civ inj · 2 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Unauthorized burning lead by count. Top five categories make up about 44% of all calls.

1,625
Total Incidents
Unauthorized burning 180 11.1%
Building fires 176 10.8%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 148 9.1%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 112 6.9%
Carbon monoxide incident 96 5.9%
All other categories 913 56.2%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Linn County?

Mar peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 122
Feb 102
Mar 182
Apr 163
May 149
Jun 143
Jul 151
Aug 127
Sep 149
Oct 152
Nov 109
Dec 76
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Linn County

7,606 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 1,385
2022 1,578
2023 1,526
2024 1,492
2025 1,625
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 176 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
53%
228
Cause undetermined
19%
83
Intentional / arson
9%
39
Equipment / heat source failure
9%
39
Under investigation
7%
32
Act of nature (lightning)
3%
5
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.7M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Linn County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 40% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $446,400 Cedar Rapids Building fires Major
2 $300,000 UNINCORPORATED Building fires Major
3 $200,000 City of Central City Building fires Significant
4 $125,548 Cedar Rapids Building fires Significant
5 $125,000 City of Springville Building fires Significant
6 $100,000 Cedar Rapids Building fires Significant
7 $100,000 Cedar Rapids Building fires Significant
8 $99,756 Cedar Rapids Building fires Significant
9 $90,000 Marion Building fires Significant
10 $87,822 Cedar Rapids Building fires Significant
06 How Linn County compares

Linn County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

7.72
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Linn County
7.72
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
0.84
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Linn County
0.84
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
4.8
Civilian fire deaths per million
Linn County
4.8
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Linn County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 19113.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Linn County

21 departments report from this county.

CEDAR RAPIDS FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 57003 995 incidents
MARION FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 57012 209 incidents
HIAWATHA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 57010 50 incidents
FAIRFAX FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 57009 44 incidents
CENTER POINT F D
—
FDID 57006 43 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.