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2025 County Report

Fires in Wheeler County, NE

In 2025, fire departments serving Wheeler County responded to 6 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $1K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

239 residents FIPS 31183 7 cities · 2 fire depts
Total incidents
6
12 across 5 years
Building fires
0
6 wildland
Property loss
$2K
$1K structure · $1K 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 100% of all calls.

6
Total Incidents
Grass fire 6 100.0%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Wheeler County?

Mar peaks. Jan dips.

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

Year over year in Wheeler County

12 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 3
2022 0
2023 2
2024 1
2025 6
05 The biggest fires

1 fires · $1K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Wheeler County during 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $1,000 Bartlett Grass fire Significant
06 How Wheeler County compares

Wheeler County vs NE vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

25.1
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Wheeler County
25.1
NE avg
5.67
US avg
7.15
0
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Wheeler County
0
NE avg
0.57
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Wheeler County
0
NE avg
7
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Wheeler County

7 cities mapped to FIPS 31183.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Wheeler County

2 departments report from this county.

Bartlett Vol Fire Dept
BARTLETT
FDID 84001 0 incidents 29 vol
Ericson Vol Fire Dept
ERICSON
FDID 84002 0 incidents 22 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.