In 2025, fire departments serving Yutan responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 80% of all calls.
Feb peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
43 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $89K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022 | 8 | — | |
| 2023* | 2 | — | |
| 2024 | 18 | — | |
| 2025 | 15 | -16.7% |
* Well below Yutan'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 Yutan departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 16 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 | Other | 5 | 31.2% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 4 | Switchgear area, transformer vault | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Storage area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 6.2% |
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 Yutan mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Match | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 6.2% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Yutan sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 9,169 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 2,000 | 12.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 1,000 | 37.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 715 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Smoking | 700 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 450 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | 443 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 300 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Equipment and vehicle use | 280 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 16.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Smoking | 220 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 202 | 46.2 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 | 68073 | 43 |
Six Nebraska cities with population within ±25% of Yutan. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Yutan.
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.