In 2025, fire departments serving North Platte responded to 901 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $80K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 100% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
5,044 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 266 | — | |
| 2022 | 1,016 | — | |
| 2023 | 1,543 | +51.9% | |
| 2024 | 1,318 | -14.6% | |
| 2025 | 901 | -31.6% |
* Well below North Platte'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 North Platte departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 344 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 | 96 | 27.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 30 | 8.7% | |
| 3 | Other | 28 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 28 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 24 | 7.0% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 24 | 7.0% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 18 | 5.2% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 15 | 4.4% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 9 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 9 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 63 | 18.3% |
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 North Platte mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 164 | 47.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 53 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 17 | 4.9% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 15 | 4.4% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 12 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Fireworks | 11 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 11 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 8 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Match | 7 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 39 | 11.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by North Platte departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. North Platte sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 118,355 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 33,000 | 20.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Natural | 23,000 | 44.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,000 | 8.1 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,000 | 22.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 25.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 6,400 | 35.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,500 | 16.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,500 | 21.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,080 | 29.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2,000 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Debris and open burning | 2,000 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,920 | 5.9 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 North Platte. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in North Platte.
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.