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2025 County Report

Fires in Louisa County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Louisa County responded to 134 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $250K property loss.

6,198 residents FIPS 19115 14 cities · 7 fire depts
Total incidents
134
449 across 5 years
Building fires
23
66 wildland
Property loss
$1.4M
$683K structure · $675K 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 71% of all calls.

134
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 41 30.6%
Building fires 23 17.2%
Grass fire 15 11.2%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 9 6.7%
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire 7 5.2%
All other categories 39 29.1%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Louisa County?

Mar peaks. Aug dips.

Jan 17
Feb 12
Mar 36
Apr 16
May 10
Jun 2
Jul 4
Aug 1
Sep 4
Oct 13
Nov 11
Dec 8
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Louisa County

449 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 69
2022 77
2023 68
2024 101
2025 134
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 23 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
66%
27
Cause undetermined
2%
1
Intentional / arson
7%
3
Equipment / heat source failure
17%
7
Under investigation
5%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
3%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $683K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Louisa County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $250,000 City of Letts Building fires Major
2 $150,000 City of Crawfordsvil Building fires Significant
3 $85,000 City of Wapello Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
4 $71,230 City of Wapello Building fires Significant
5 $40,000 City of Oakville Building fires Significant
6 $25,000 City of Morning Sun Building fires Significant
7 $25,000 City of Wapello Building fires Significant
8 $22,500 City of Crawfordsvil Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
9 $10,000 City of Wapello Building fires Significant
10 $4,000 City of Crawfordsvil Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
06 How Louisa County compares

Louisa County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

21.62
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Louisa County
21.62
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
3.71
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Louisa County
3.71
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Louisa County
0
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Louisa County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 19115.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Louisa County

7 departments report from this county.

WAPELLO FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 58009 57 incidents
COLUMBUS JUNCTION FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 58002 34 incidents
MORNING SUN FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 58007 19 incidents
LETTS FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 58006 12 incidents
COTTER FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 58003 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.