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2025 County Report

Fires in Perry County, IN

In 2025, fire departments serving Perry County responded to 21 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $200K property loss.

9,552 residents FIPS 18123 26 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
21
184 across 5 years
Building fires
4
7 wildland
Property loss
$327K
$224K structure · $104K 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 76% of all calls.

21
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 6 28.6%
Building fires 4 19.0%
Passenger vehicle fire 3 14.3%
Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire 2 9.5%
Fire, other 1 4.8%
All other categories 5 23.8%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Perry County?

Mar peaks. Aug dips.

Jan 3
Feb 1
Mar 8
Apr 1
May 1
Jun 1
Jul 1
Aug 0
Sep 0
Oct 0
Nov 4
Dec 1
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Perry County

184 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 24
2022 90
2023 24
2024 25
2025 21
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 4 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
62%
5
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
38%
3
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

7 fires · $224K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Perry County during 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $200,000 Tell City Building fires Significant
2 $7,000 Cannelton Passenger vehicle fire Significant
3 $5,000 Cannelton Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
4 $5,000 Bristow Passenger vehicle fire Significant
5 $3,000 Gatchel Passenger vehicle fire Significant
6 $2,000 Gatchel Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle Significant
7 $1,500 Tell City Building fires Significant
06 How Perry County compares

Perry County vs IN vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

2.2
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Perry County
2.2
IN avg
8.61
US avg
7.15
0.42
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Perry County
0.42
IN avg
1.26
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Perry County
0
IN avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Perry County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 18123.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Perry County

1 departments report from this county.

Branchville Correctional Facility
Indianapolis
FDID 62006 0 incidents 2 paid
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.