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2025 County Report

Fires in Warren County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Warren County responded to 367 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $266K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

32,755 residents FIPS 19181 27 cities · 11 fire depts
Total incidents
367
1,680 across 5 years
Building fires
39
141 wildland
Property loss
$1.1M
$867K structure · $256K contents
Casualties
2 / 1
2 civ deaths · 1 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 56% of all calls.

367
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 67 18.3%
Grass fire 47 12.8%
Building fires 39 10.6%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 30 8.2%
Passenger vehicle fire 21 5.7%
All other categories 163 44.4%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Warren County?

Mar peaks. Aug dips.

Jan 45
Feb 28
Mar 105
Apr 29
May 21
Jun 20
Jul 17
Aug 12
Sep 24
Oct 21
Nov 26
Dec 19
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Warren County

1,680 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 208
2022 336
2023 324
2024 445
2025 367
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 39 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
47%
47
Cause undetermined
13%
13
Intentional / arson
21%
21
Equipment / heat source failure
9%
9
Under investigation
7%
7
Act of nature (lightning)
3%
4
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $686K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Warren County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 79% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $266,400 Indianola Building fires Major
2 $85,600 Norwalk Building fires Significant
3 $60,000 City of Norwalk Building fires Significant
4 $50,000 Hartford Passenger vehicle fire Significant
5 $50,000 WARREN CO Building fires Significant
6 $45,000 Norwalk Passenger vehicle fire Significant
7 $40,000 City of Lacona Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
8 $40,000 City of Norwalk Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $27,995 Hartford Passenger vehicle fire Significant
10 $21,000 City of New Virginia Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Warren County compares

Warren County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

11.2
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Warren County
11.2
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
1.19
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Warren County
1.19
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
61.1
Civilian fire deaths per million
Warren County
61.1
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Warren County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 19181.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Warren County

11 departments report from this county.

INDIANOLA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 91005 101 incidents
NORWALK FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 91010 90 incidents 40 vol
CARLISLE FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 91002 57 incidents
SANDYVILLE FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 91012 53 incidents
HARTFORD FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 91004 37 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.