In 2025, fire departments serving Blue Earth responded to 16 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 81% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
71 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $493K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 8 | — | |
| 2022 | 10 | — | |
| 2023 | 21 | +110.0% | |
| 2024 | 16 | -23.8% | |
| 2025 | 16 | +0.0% |
* Well below Blue Earth's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 1 building fires Blue Earth departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 23 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Outside area, other | 5 | 21.7% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 6 | Entrance way, lobby | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 13.0% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Blue Earth mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 26.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 21.7% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 8.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 1 | 4.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 4.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Blue Earth sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,604 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,909 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 401 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 49.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 290 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 40.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 200 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 177 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 150 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 70 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 60 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2004 | Natural | 59 | 43.3 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 56013 | 71 |
Six Minnesota cities with population within ±25% of Blue Earth. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 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. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.