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2025 County Report

Fires in Worth County, IA

In 2025, fire departments serving Worth County responded to 39 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $100K property loss.

4,830 residents FIPS 19195 12 cities · 7 fire depts
Total incidents
39
139 across 5 years
Building fires
4
19 wildland
Property loss
$300K
$155K structure · $145K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Grass fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.

39
Total Incidents
Grass fire 10 25.6%
Natural vegetation fire, other 6 15.4%
Building fires 4 10.3%
Passenger vehicle fire 3 7.7%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 3 7.7%
All other categories 13 33.3%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Worth County?

May peaks. Aug dips.

Jan 5
Feb 3
Mar 4
Apr 4
May 9
Jun 1
Jul 6
Aug 0
Sep 0
Oct 4
Nov 1
Dec 2
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Worth County

139 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 8
2022 11
2023 17
2024 64
2025 39
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 4 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
57%
8
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
14%
2
Equipment / heat source failure
29%
4
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

5 fires · $155K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Worth County during 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $100,000 City of Northwood Building fires Significant
2 $37,800 Northwood Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other Significant
3 $15,000 Northwood Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire Significant
4 $1,500 City of Grafton Building fires Significant
5 $1,000 City of Manly Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Worth County compares

Worth County vs IA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

8.07
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Worth County
8.07
IA avg
9.41
US avg
7.15
0.83
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Worth County
0.83
IA avg
1.15
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Worth County
0
IA avg
7.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Worth County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 19195.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Worth County

7 departments report from this county.

NORTHWOOD FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 98007 13 incidents
MANLY FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 98006 12 incidents
HANLONTOWN FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 98003 9 incidents
GRAFTON FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 98002 6 incidents
FERTILE FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 98001 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.