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2025 County Report

Fires in Taylor County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Taylor County responded to 35 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $1.0M property loss.

4,113 residents FIPS 19173 14 cities · 8 fire depts
Total incidents
35
74 across 5 years
Building fires
13
15 wildland
Property loss
$6.0M
$1.0M structure · $5.0M contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 86% of all calls.

35
Total Incidents
Building fires 13 37.1%
Grass fire 10 28.6%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 3 8.6%
Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire 2 5.7%
Cultivated vegetation, crop fire, other 2 5.7%
All other categories 5 14.3%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Taylor County?

Aug peaks. May dips.

Jan 6
Feb 2
Mar 7
Apr 2
May 0
Jun 0
Jul 1
Aug 10
Sep 1
Oct 2
Nov 2
Dec 2
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Taylor County

74 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 8
2022 11
2023 4
2024 16
2025 35
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 13 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
100%
10
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
0%
0
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

2 fires · $1.0M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Taylor County during 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $1,000,000 City of Clearfield Building fires Major
2 $10,000 City of Lenox Building fires Significant
06 How Taylor County compares

Taylor County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

8.51
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Taylor County
8.51
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
3.16
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Taylor County
3.16
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Taylor County
0
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Taylor County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 19173.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Taylor County

8 departments report from this county.

CLEARFIELD FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 87004 7 incidents
LENOX FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 87007 5 incidents
GRAVITY FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 87006 4 incidents
ATHELSTAN FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 87001 0 incidents
BEDFORD FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 87002 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.