In 2025, fire departments serving Blue Hill responded to 13 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $95K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
37 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $127K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 7 | — | |
| 2022 | 9 | +28.6% | |
| 2023 | 5 | -44.4% | |
| 2024* | 3 | — | |
| 2025 | 13 | — |
* Well below Blue Hill'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 2 building fires Blue Hill departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 12 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Structural area, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 8.3% |
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 Hill mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Lightning | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 8.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Blue Hill departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $95,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Blue Hill sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,668 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 3,500 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 1,520 | 42.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 1,500 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,100 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Smoking | 660 | 25.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 640 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 408 | 29.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 350 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Smoking | 300 | 29.4 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 | 68930 | 37 |
Six Nebraska cities with population within ±25% of Blue Hill. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Blue Hill.
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.