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2025 County Report

Fires in Lincoln County, NE

In 2025, fire departments serving Lincoln County responded to 928 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $80K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

26,211 residents FIPS 31111 16 cities · 7 fire depts
Total incidents
928
5,255 across 5 years
Building fires
3
16 wildland
Property loss
$111K
$91K structure · $20K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Aircraft standby lead by count. Top five categories make up about 99% of all calls.

928
Total Incidents
Aircraft standby 896 96.6%
Grass fire 11 1.2%
Road freight or transport vehicle fire 4 0.4%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 4 0.4%
Building fires 3 0.3%
All other categories 10 1.1%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Lincoln County?

Mar peaks. Oct dips.

Jan 105
Feb 98
Mar 118
Apr 99
May 109
Jun 105
Jul 98
Aug 111
Sep 81
Oct 1
Nov 1
Dec 2
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Lincoln County

5,255 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 310
2022 1,074
2023 1,576
2024 1,367
2025 928
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 3 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
33%
1
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
33%
1
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
34%
1
05 The biggest fires

4 fires · $91K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Lincoln County during 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $80,000 North Platte Building fires Significant
2 $6,000 Hershey Passenger vehicle fire Significant
3 $4,000 Hershey Passenger vehicle fire Significant
4 $500 Hershey Grass fire Significant
06 How Lincoln County compares

Lincoln County vs NE vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

35.4
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Lincoln County
35.4
NE avg
5.67
US avg
7.15
0.11
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Lincoln County
0.11
NE avg
0.57
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Lincoln County
0
NE avg
7
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Lincoln County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 31111.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Lincoln County

7 departments report from this county.

North Platte Regional Airport
NORTH PLATTE
FDID 15008 902 incidents 12 paid
Hershey Vol Fire Dept
Hershey
FDID 15002 33 incidents 17 vol
Sutherland Vol Fire Dept
SUTHERLAND
FDID 15005 1 incidents 22 vol
Brady Rural Fire Dept
BRADY
FDID 15001 0 incidents 25 vol
Maxwell Vol Fire Rescue Dept
MAXWELL
FDID 15003 0 incidents 28 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.