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2025 County Report

Fires in Pocahontas County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Pocahontas County responded to 54 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $400K property loss.

4,551 residents FIPS 19151 10 cities · 8 fire depts
Total incidents
54
87 across 5 years
Building fires
5
19 wildland
Property loss
$768K
$635K structure · $133K 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 59% of all calls.

54
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 12 22.2%
Grass fire 7 13.0%
Building fires 5 9.3%
Prescribed fire 5 9.3%
Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire 3 5.6%
All other categories 22 40.7%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Pocahontas County?

Apr peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 2
Feb 4
Mar 8
Apr 12
May 4
Jun 3
Jul 4
Aug 2
Sep 4
Oct 3
Nov 7
Dec 1
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Pocahontas County

87 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 10
2022 8
2023 7
2024 8
2025 54
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 5 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
25%
1
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
75%
3
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

4 fires · $635K in losses

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

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $400,000 City of Pocahontas Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Major
2 $201,581 City of Pocahontas Building fires Significant
3 $32,000 City of Fonda Cultivated grain or crop fire Significant
4 $1,500 City of Fonda Grass fire Significant
06 How Pocahontas County compares

Pocahontas County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

11.87
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Pocahontas County
11.87
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
1.1
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Pocahontas County
1.1
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Pocahontas County
0
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Pocahontas County

10 cities mapped to FIPS 19151.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Pocahontas County

8 departments report from this county.

LAURENS FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 76003 27 incidents
POCAHONTAS FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 76006 21 incidents
FONDA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 76001 9 incidents
HAVELOCK FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 76002 0 incidents
PALMER FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 76004 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.