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2025 County Report

Fires in Monona County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Monona County responded to 55 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $100K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

6,061 residents FIPS 19133 13 cities · 9 fire depts
Total incidents
55
223 across 5 years
Building fires
2
28 wildland
Property loss
$167K
$167K 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 64% of all calls.

55
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 14 25.5%
Grass fire 9 16.4%
Passenger vehicle fire 4 7.3%
Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire 4 7.3%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 4 7.3%
All other categories 20 36.4%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Monona County?

Apr peaks. Aug dips.

Jan 4
Feb 4
Mar 12
Apr 17
May 3
Jun 3
Jul 2
Aug 0
Sep 1
Oct 2
Nov 4
Dec 3
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Monona County

223 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 34
2022 53
2023 42
2024 39
2025 55
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 2 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
72%
13
Cause undetermined
6%
1
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
22%
4
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

4 fires · $167K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Monona County during 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $100,000 City of Onawa Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
2 $27,000 City of Onawa Passenger vehicle fire Significant
3 $20,000 City of Moorhead Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
4 $20,000 City of Ute Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
06 How Monona County compares

Monona County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

9.07
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Monona County
9.07
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
0.33
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Monona County
0.33
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Monona County
0
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Monona County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 19133.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Monona County

9 departments report from this county.

ONAWA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 67005 34 incidents
SOLDIER FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 67007 10 incidents
MOORHEAD FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 67004 8 incidents
UTE FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 67009 4 incidents
BLENCOE FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 67001 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.