In 2025, fire departments serving Neligh responded to 10 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 80% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
11 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 0 | — | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024* | 1 | — | |
| 2025 | 10 | — |
* Well below Neligh'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 0 building fires Neligh departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 5 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Separate operator/control area of transportation | 1 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 1 | 20.0% |
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 Neligh mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 60.0% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 40.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Neligh sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,831 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 | 2,464 | 38.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,700 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,200 | 46.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,200 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,100 | 7.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Debris and open burning | 1,000 | 5.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | 870 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Debris and open burning | 700 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 700 | 24.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 700 | 34.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 640 | 45.5 mi |
Top 2 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Nebraska cities with population within ±25% of Neligh. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Neligh.
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.