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2025 County Report

Fires in Lyon County, MN

In 2025, fire departments serving Lyon County responded to 125 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $225K property loss.

20,338 residents FIPS 27083 15 cities · 10 fire depts
Total incidents
125
619 across 5 years
Building fires
29
28 wildland
Property loss
$860K
$759K structure · $102K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 62% of all calls.

125
Total Incidents
Building fires 29 23.2%
Grass fire 18 14.4%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 15 12.0%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 9 7.2%
Carbon monoxide incident 7 5.6%
All other categories 47 37.6%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Lyon County?

Apr peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 9
Feb 6
Mar 20
Apr 30
May 18
Jun 3
Jul 7
Aug 3
Sep 6
Oct 12
Nov 9
Dec 2
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Lyon County

619 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 105
2022 151
2023 139
2024 99
2025 125
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 29 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
58%
15
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
8%
2
Equipment / heat source failure
27%
7
Under investigation
4%
1
Act of nature (lightning)
3%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $712K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Lyon County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 94% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $225,000 Marshall Building fires Significant
2 $208,742 Marshall Building fires Significant
3 $100,000 Marshall Building fires Significant
4 $50,000 Lynd Building fires Significant
5 $30,000 City of Cottonwood Building fires Significant
6 $30,000 City of Florence Building fires Significant
7 $26,000 City of Cottonwood Building fires Significant
8 $20,000 Tracy Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $12,000 Marshall Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
10 $10,000 Marshall Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Lyon County compares

Lyon County vs MN vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

6.15
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Lyon County
6.15
MN avg
7.36
US avg
7.15
1.43
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Lyon County
1.43
MN avg
1.08
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Lyon County
0
MN avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Lyon County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 27083.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Lyon County

10 departments report from this county.

MARSHALL FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 42106 59 incidents
TRACY FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 42110 19 incidents
COTTONWOOD FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 42102 10 incidents
LYND FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 42105 9 incidents
MINNEOTA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 42107 9 incidents
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in MN

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Greenwood 2021 USFS 26,829
2 MNGLR-FY21-WF-Oxcart 2021 FWS 12,536
3 Palsburg 2015 FWS 4,456
4 Agassiz NWR Project RX 2024 FWS 4,208
5 MNSBR-FY19-RX-UNIT 4a 6 6a 2019 FWS 2,989
6 RL 005 UNIT 8 & 9 2021 BIA 2,937
7 4 Square Mile RX 2024 FWS 2,481
8 RL 029 2018 BIA 2,360
9 Unit 8E RX 2024 FWS 2,241
10 MNSBR-FY19-RX-UNIT 7 9 11 2019 FWS 2,193

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.