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2025 County Report

Fires in Sibley County, MN

In 2025, fire departments serving Sibley County responded to 96 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $400K property loss.

8,534 residents FIPS 27143 11 cities · 7 fire depts
Total incidents
96
428 across 5 years
Building fires
18
27 wildland
Property loss
$3.3M
$1.9M structure · $1.4M contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Grass fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.

96
Total Incidents
Grass fire 21 21.9%
Building fires 18 18.8%
Aircraft standby 10 10.4%
Carbon monoxide incident 9 9.4%
Cultivated grain or crop fire 6 6.2%
All other categories 32 33.3%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Sibley County?

Mar peaks. Aug dips.

Jan 14
Feb 7
Mar 17
Apr 14
May 9
Jun 8
Jul 4
Aug 2
Sep 6
Oct 6
Nov 5
Dec 4
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Sibley County

428 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 91
2022 95
2023 68
2024 78
2025 96
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 18 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
62%
15
Cause undetermined
8%
2
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
17%
4
Under investigation
12%
3
Act of nature (lightning)
1%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.9M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Sibley County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 99% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $400,000 Gaylord Building fires Major
2 $400,000 Winthrop Building fires Major
3 $400,000 Winthrop Building fires Major
4 $300,000 City of Winthrop Building fires Major
5 $125,000 Winthrop Building fires Significant
6 $100,000 Arlington Building fires Significant
7 $60,000 Arlington Outside equipment fire Significant
8 $60,000 Gaylord Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
9 $50,000 Arlington Building fires Significant
10 $27,000 City of Gibbon Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
06 How Sibley County compares

Sibley County vs MN vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

11.25
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Sibley County
11.25
MN avg
7.36
US avg
7.15
2.11
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Sibley County
2.11
MN avg
1.08
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Sibley County
0
MN avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Sibley County

11 cities mapped to FIPS 27143.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Sibley County

7 departments report from this county.

ARLINGTON FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 72101 44 incidents
GAYLORD FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 72102 16 incidents
WINTHROP FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 72107 14 incidents
NEW AUBURN FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 72106 8 incidents
HENDERSON FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 72105 7 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.