In 2025, fire departments serving Bureau County responded to 362 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $630K property loss.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips.
1,442 incidents from 2021 through 2025.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 198 | |
| 2022 | 208 | |
| 2023 | 344 | |
| 2024 | 330 | |
| 2025 | 362 |
For the 52 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Largest single-incident property losses in Bureau County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 96% of the county's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $630,000 | Walnut | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Major |
| 2 | $500,000 | Tiskilwa | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Major |
| 3 | $350,000 | Walnut | Building fires | Major |
| 4 | $100,000 | Princeton | Fire, other | Significant |
| 5 | $100,000 | Princeton | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant |
| 6 | $80,000 | Spring Valley | Building fires | Significant |
| 7 | $56,000 | Mineral | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant |
| 8 | $23,000 | Princeton | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant |
| 9 | $20,000 | Seatonville | Building fires | Significant |
| 10 | $15,000 | Walnut | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.
12 cities mapped to FIPS 17011.
20 departments report from this county.
Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).
| # | Name | Year | Agency | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red Shale RX | 2024 | FWS | 1,290 |
| 2 | Herrin Flats RX | 2024 | FWS | 1,134 |
| 3 | Beach RX | 2024 | FWS | 864 |
| 4 | Hampton North RX | 2024 | FWS | 708 |
| 5 | Hampton RX | 2024 | FWS | 668 |
| 6 | Grassy Creek 2 RX | 2024 | FWS | 621 |
| 7 | Chamness RX | 2024 | FWS | 610 |
| 8 | Greenbriar RX | 2024 | FWS | 590 |
| 9 | COR - Devils Kitchen West RX | 2024 | FWS | 468 |
| 10 | Smith RX | 2024 | FWS | 366 |
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.