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2025 County Report

Fires in Brown County, IN

In 2025, fire departments serving Brown County responded to 160 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $250K property loss.

3,152 residents FIPS 18013 29 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
160
838 across 5 years
Building fires
23
45 wildland
Property loss
$283K
$275K structure · $8K contents
Casualties
0 / 1
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 1 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.

160
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 25 15.6%
Building fires 23 14.4%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 17 10.6%
Power line down 14 8.8%
Forest, woods or wildland fire 9 5.6%
All other categories 72 45.0%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Brown County?

Mar peaks. Oct dips.

Jan 12
Feb 16
Mar 47
Apr 8
May 17
Jun 14
Jul 7
Aug 10
Sep 1
Oct 0
Nov 8
Dec 20
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Brown County

838 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 145
2022 165
2023 162
2024 206
2025 160
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 23 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
47%
16
Cause undetermined
15%
5
Intentional / arson
12%
4
Equipment / heat source failure
15%
5
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
11%
4
05 The biggest fires

6 fires · $275K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Brown County during 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $250,000 Sweetwater Lake Building fires Major
2 $20,000 Sweetwater Lake Building fires Significant
3 $5,000 Nashville Building fires Significant
4 $100 Beanblossom Passenger vehicle fire Significant
5 $1 Fruitdale Building fires Significant
6 $1 Fruitdale Building fires Significant
06 How Brown County compares

Brown County vs IN vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

50.76
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Brown County
50.76
IN avg
8.61
US avg
7.15
7.3
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Brown County
7.3
IN avg
1.26
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Brown County
0
IN avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Brown County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 18013.

CityPopulation 
Nashville 1,528 View ›
Cordry Sweetwater Lakes 1,328 View ›
Helmsburg 296 View ›
Lanam 0 View ›
Becks Grove 0 View ›
Beanblossom 0 View ›
Fruitdale 0 View ›
Stone Head 0 View ›
Gatesville 0 View ›
Pikes Peak 0 View ›
Belmont 0 View ›
Gnaw Bone 0 View ›
08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Brown County

1 departments report from this county.

Southern Brown VFD
—
FDID 07008 11 incidents
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in IN

Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 INBOR-FY19-RX-Unit 3&4 Spring 2109 WUI 2019 FWS 1,977
2 INBOR-FY19-RX-Unit 8 Spring 2109 NonWUI 2019 FWS 769
3 OGDEN DUNS 1986 NPS 556
4 21-INDU Tolleston Dunes East 2021 NPS 550
5 Miller 3 Wildfire 2021 NPS 424
6 INBOR-FY19-RX-Unit 5&41 Spring 2109 NonWUI 2019 FWS 419
7 INBOR-FY19-RX-Unit 28&29 PGM Spring 2109 NonWUI 2019 FWS 410
8 INBOR-FY19-RX-Unit 31 North Spring 2109 NonWUI 2019 FWS 400
9 23 Tolleston Dunes West RX BIL 2023 NPS 335
10 22-INDU Derby Ditch 2021 NPS 327

About this data

County-level NFIRS aggregates for 2025, plus 5-year totals across 2021–2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Wildfire risk score (0–100) and Expected Annual Loss come from FEMA's National Risk Index. Drought class is the most recent USDM classification (D0 = abnormally dry through D4 = exceptional drought). Historical fire perimeters are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.