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2025 County Report

Fires in Perkins County, NE

In 2025, fire departments serving Perkins County responded to 25 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $85K property loss.

1,898 residents FIPS 31135 6 cities · 4 fire depts
Total incidents
25
95 across 5 years
Building fires
1
6 wildland
Property loss
$121K
$115K structure · $5K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Cultivated grain or crop fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 60% of all calls.

25
Total Incidents
Cultivated grain or crop fire 4 16.0%
Trash or rubbish fire, contained 3 12.0%
Grass fire 3 12.0%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 3 12.0%
Cooking fire, confined to container 2 8.0%
All other categories 10 40.0%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Perkins County?

Jun peaks. Jan dips.

Jan 0
Feb 2
Mar 3
Apr 5
May 2
Jun 6
Jul 6
Aug 0
Sep 0
Oct 1
Nov 0
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Perkins County

95 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 20
2022 20
2023 10
2024 20
2025 25
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 1 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

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

5 fires · $115K in losses

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

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $85,000 Grant Building fires Significant
2 $25,000 Grant Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
3 $5,000 Grant Passenger vehicle fire Significant
4 $200 Grant Dumpster or other outside trash receptacle fire Significant
5 $100 Grant Grass fire Significant
06 How Perkins County compares

Perkins County vs NE vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

13.17
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Perkins County
13.17
NE avg
5.67
US avg
7.15
0.53
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Perkins County
0.53
NE avg
0.57
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Perkins County
0
NE avg
7
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Perkins County

6 cities mapped to FIPS 31135.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Perkins County

4 departments report from this county.

Grant Vol Fire Dept
Grant
FDID 74002 29 incidents 1 paid 24 vol
Elsie Vol Fire Dept
Elsie
FDID 74001 0 incidents 1 paid 28 vol
Madrid Vol Fire Dept
Madrid
FDID 74003 0 incidents 19 vol
Venango Vol Fire Dept
VENANGO
FDID 74004 0 incidents 23 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.