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2025 County Report

Fires in Saline County, NE

In 2025, fire departments serving Saline County responded to 25 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $23K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

11,689 residents FIPS 31151 10 cities · 8 fire depts
Total incidents
25
183 across 5 years
Building fires
4
4 wildland
Property loss
$55K
$53K structure · $2K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Fire, other lead by count. Top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.

25
Total Incidents
Fire, other 4 16.0%
Building fires 4 16.0%
Grass fire 4 16.0%
Aircraft standby 3 12.0%
Power line down 2 8.0%
All other categories 8 32.0%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Saline County?

Mar peaks. Oct dips.

Jan 4
Feb 2
Mar 7
Apr 5
May 1
Jun 1
Jul 2
Aug 2
Sep 1
Oct 0
Nov 0
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Saline County

183 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 33
2022 41
2023 49
2024 35
2025 25
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
91%
10
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
9%
1
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

6 fires · $53K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Saline County during 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $23,000 Wilber Passenger vehicle fire Significant
2 $15,000 Crete Building fires Significant
3 $6,000 Crete Building fires Significant
4 $5,000 crete Building fires Significant
5 $3,000 Crete Building fires Significant
6 $1,000 Crete Outside rubbish fire, other Significant
06 How Saline County compares

Saline County vs NE vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

2.14
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Saline County
2.14
NE avg
5.67
US avg
7.15
0.34
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Saline County
0.34
NE avg
0.57
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Saline County
0
NE avg
7
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Saline County

10 cities mapped to FIPS 31151.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Saline County

8 departments report from this county.

Friend Vol Fire Dept
Friend
FDID 22004 11 incidents 26 vol
Crete Fire Rescue
Crete
FDID 22001 9 incidents 39 vol
Dorchester Vol Fire Dept
Dorchester
FDID 22003 2 incidents 17 vol
Swanton Vol Fire Dept
Swanton
FDID 22005 1 incidents 22 vol
DeWitt Vol Fire Dept
DEWITT
FDID 22002 0 incidents 18 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.