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2025 County Report

Fires in Lawrence County, IN

In 2025, fire departments serving Lawrence County responded to 254 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $75K property loss.

20,833 residents FIPS 18093 37 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
254
1,697 across 5 years
Building fires
36
26 wildland
Property loss
$286K
$195K structure · $91K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.

254
Total Incidents
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 39 15.4%
Building fires 36 14.2%
Vehicle accident, general cleanup 32 12.6%
Fire, other 19 7.5%
Carbon monoxide incident 14 5.5%
All other categories 114 44.9%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Lawrence County?

May peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 29
Feb 26
Mar 33
Apr 33
May 34
Jun 34
Jul 18
Aug 20
Sep 0
Oct 1
Nov 14
Dec 12
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Lawrence County

1,697 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 326
2022 335
2023 363
2024 419
2025 254
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 36 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
40%
25
Cause undetermined
17%
11
Intentional / arson
8%
5
Equipment / heat source failure
14%
9
Under investigation
10%
6
Act of nature (lightning)
11%
7
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $186K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Lawrence County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 95% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $75,000 City of Mitchell Building fires Significant
2 $30,000 City of Bedford Building fires Significant
3 $20,000 City of Mitchell Building fires Significant
4 $15,000 Needmore Passenger vehicle fire Significant
5 $15,000 City of Mitchell Fires in structures other than in a building Significant
6 $10,000 City of Mitchell Building fires Significant
7 $5,540 City of Mitchell Building fires Significant
8 $5,000 City of Mitchell Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $5,000 Peerless Passenger vehicle fire Significant
10 $5,000 Peerless Building fires Significant
06 How Lawrence County compares

Lawrence County vs IN vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

12.19
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Lawrence County
12.19
IN avg
8.61
US avg
7.15
1.73
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Lawrence County
1.73
IN avg
1.26
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Lawrence County
0
IN avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Lawrence County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 18093.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Lawrence County

1 departments report from this county.

Ingalls Vol Fire Dept
Bedford
FDID 48010 0 incidents 21 vol
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).

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.