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2025 County Report

Fires in Burt County, NE

In 2025, fire departments serving Burt County responded to 52 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $350K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

4,892 residents FIPS 31021 7 cities · 5 fire depts
Total incidents
52
182 across 5 years
Building fires
7
10 wildland
Property loss
$642K
$634K structure · $8K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Authorized controlled burning lead by count. Top five categories make up about 60% of all calls.

52
Total Incidents
Authorized controlled burning 9 17.3%
Building fires 7 13.5%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 6 11.5%
Cultivated grain or crop fire 5 9.6%
Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire 4 7.7%
All other categories 21 40.4%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Burt County?

Apr peaks. Mar dips.

Jan 2
Feb 6
Mar 1
Apr 16
May 4
Jun 6
Jul 1
Aug 3
Sep 1
Oct 9
Nov 2
Dec 1
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Burt County

182 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 27
2022 40
2023 34
2024 29
2025 52
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 7 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
47%
8
Cause undetermined
12%
2
Intentional / arson
6%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
29%
5
Under investigation
6%
1
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

5 fires · $634K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Burt County during 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $350,000 Lyons Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Major
2 $250,000 tekamah Outside equipment fire Major
3 $30,000 Lyons Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
4 $3,500 Lyons Passenger vehicle fire Significant
5 $500 tekamah Fire, other Significant
06 How Burt County compares

Burt County vs NE vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

10.63
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Burt County
10.63
NE avg
5.67
US avg
7.15
1.43
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Burt County
1.43
NE avg
0.57
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Burt County
0
NE avg
7
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Burt County

7 cities mapped to FIPS 31021.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Burt County

5 departments report from this county.

Tekamah Fire Rescue Assoc
TEKAMAH
FDID 31005 28 incidents 34 vol
Lyons Vol Fire Dept
LYONS
FDID 31003 26 incidents 1 paid 42 vol
Craig Fire Dist
CRAIG
FDID 31001 0 incidents 22 vol
Decatur Vol Fire Dept
Decatur
FDID 31002 0 incidents 25 vol
Oakland Vol Fire Dept
Oakland
FDID 31004 0 incidents 1 paid 24 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in NE

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 West Ash 2012 USFS 56,470
2 POWDERHORN 2000 USFS 45,765
3 Bovee 2022 USFS 18,875
4 Spotted Tail #3 2006 USFS 17,928
5 Plum 1965 USFS 13,235
6 Roberts Tract 2006 USFS 9,929
7 Hay Canyon 2012 USFS 9,882
8 Good Friday 1995 USFS 6,853
9 Red Kate 2019 FWS 5,035
10 Coffee 1987 USFS 4,836

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.