Home› Counties› NE› Dawes County
2025 County Report

Fires in Dawes County, NE

In 2025, fire departments serving Dawes County responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Very High.

6,279 residents FIPS 31045 9 cities · 2 fire depts
Total incidents
15
167 across 5 years
Building fires
2
9 wildland
Property loss
$0
$0 structure · $0 contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 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 80% of all calls.

15
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 4 26.7%
Grass fire 3 20.0%
Building fires 2 13.3%
Cultivated vegetation, crop fire, other 2 13.3%
Fire, other 1 6.7%
All other categories 3 20.0%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Dawes County?

Jun peaks. Apr dips.

Jan 2
Feb 4
Mar 1
Apr 0
May 0
Jun 5
Jul 3
Aug 0
Sep 0
Oct 0
Nov 0
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Dawes County

167 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 45
2022 41
2023 21
2024 45
2025 15
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 2 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
27%
3
Cause undetermined
36%
4
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
9%
1
Under investigation
9%
1
Act of nature (lightning)
19%
2
06 How Dawes County compares

Dawes County vs NE vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

2.39
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Dawes County
2.39
NE avg
5.67
US avg
7.15
0.32
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Dawes County
0.32
NE avg
0.57
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Dawes County
0
NE avg
7
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Dawes County

9 cities mapped to FIPS 31045.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Dawes County

2 departments report from this county.

Crawford Fire
CRAWFORD
FDID 69002 16 incidents 43 vol
Chadron Vol Fire Dept
Chadron
FDID 69001 0 incidents 45 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.