In 2025, fire departments serving Geneva responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
29 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $276K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024 | 11 | — | |
| 2025 | 18 | +63.6% |
* Well below Geneva'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 Geneva departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 15 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 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 9 | Multiple areas | 1 | 6.7% |
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 Geneva mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 7 | 46.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 5 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Lightning | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 6.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Geneva departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $70,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $200 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Geneva sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 11,280 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 | 11.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 1,000 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 700 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Smoking | 660 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 408 | 17.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 401 | 23.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Debris and open burning | 350 | 8.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Smoking | 320 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Smoking | 300 | 43.0 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 | 68361 | 29 |
Six Nebraska cities with population within ±25% of Geneva. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Geneva.
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.