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2025 County Report

Fires in Valley County, NE

In 2025, fire departments serving Valley County responded to 13 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $115K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

2,719 residents FIPS 31175 7 cities · 3 fire depts
Total incidents
13
61 across 5 years
Building fires
2
5 wildland
Property loss
$156K
$116K structure · $40K 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 69% of all calls.

13
Total Incidents
Grass fire 3 23.1%
Building fires 2 15.4%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 2 15.4%
Fire, other 1 7.7%
Passenger vehicle fire 1 7.7%
All other categories 4 30.8%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Valley County?

Mar peaks. May dips.

Jan 1
Feb 2
Mar 6
Apr 4
May 0
Jun 0
Jul 0
Aug 0
Sep 0
Oct 0
Nov 0
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Valley County

61 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 8
2022 17
2023 14
2024 9
2025 13
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 2 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
71%
5
Cause undetermined
14%
1
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
14%
1
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
1%
0
05 The biggest fires

3 fires · $116K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Valley County during 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $115,000 Ord Building fires Significant
2 $500 North Loup Passenger vehicle fire Significant
3 $100 North Loup Fire, other Significant
06 How Valley County compares

Valley County vs NE vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

4.78
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Valley County
4.78
NE avg
5.67
US avg
7.15
0.74
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Valley County
0.74
NE avg
0.57
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Valley County
0
NE avg
7
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Valley County

7 cities mapped to FIPS 31175.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Valley County

3 departments report from this county.

North Loup Vol Fire Dept
North Loup
FDID 47002 11 incidents 24 vol
Ord Vol Fire Dept
Ord
FDID 47003 7 incidents 1 paid 46 vol
Arcadia Vol Fire Dept
ARCADIA
FDID 47001 0 incidents 1 paid 28 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.