In 2025, fire departments across Nebraska responded to 8,953 fire and hazmat incidents — including the West Ash wildfire that burned 56,471 acres in 2012.
Nebraska ranks #16 in cumulative acres burned in the NIFC perimeter atlas. Hover any state to compare; click to drill in.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Top five categories cover roughly 44% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. (Latest year: 2025.)
5-year cumulative seasonality smooths out single-year noise. Apr peaks across the window; Dec dips.
42,917 incidents from 2021 through 2025 across all reporting departments.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5,180 | |
| 2022 | 7,441 | |
| 2023 | 10,400 | |
| 2024 | 10,943 | |
| 2025 | 8,953 |
For the 907 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Combined NFIRS + FPA-FOD totals across the available reporting window. Click a cause to see how it plays out nationwide.
| # | Cause | Incidents | FOD vs NFIRS | Acres | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined / missing | 4,458 | 2,157 / 2,301 | 175,146 | |
| 2 | Debris & open burning | 3,986 | 3,986 / 0 | 97,037 | |
| 3 | Equipment & vehicle use | 3,402 | 1,929 / 1,473 | 172,370 | |
| 4 | Natural (lightning) | 1,840 | 1,409 / 431 | 574,718 | |
| 5 | Arson / incendiarism | 1,669 | 354 / 1,315 | 8,930 | |
| 6 | Power generation / utility | 454 | 454 / 0 | 21,016 | |
| 7 | Smoking | 398 | 398 / 0 | 19,833 | |
| 8 | Railroad operations | 355 | 355 / 0 | 5,057 | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 285 | 285 / 0 | 1,922 | |
| 10 | Recreation & ceremony | 238 | 238 / 0 | 13,617 | |
| 11 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 175 | 175 / 0 | 5,519 | |
| 12 | Other causes | 119 | 1 / 118 | 0 |
Topical groupings of NFIRS incident types — building, cooking, electrical, vehicle, and more. Each links to its national rollup.
| # | Topic | Incidents | Loss | Deaths | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Outdoor fires | 12,134 | $10.3M | 2 | |
| 2 | Gas leaks | 8,236 | $244K | 1 | |
| 3 | Building fires | 6,474 | $121.5M | 26 | |
| 4 | Wildland fires | 6,426 | $10.0M | 2 | |
| 5 | Rubbish / refuse | 4,874 | $589K | 0 | |
| 6 | Vehicle fires | 3,073 | $42.4M | 8 | |
| 7 | Electrical / wiring | 3,024 | $109K | 0 | |
| 8 | Cooking-related | 1,202 | $128K | 0 | |
| 9 | Arson | 1,093 | $3.7M | 1 |
Largest single-incident property losses statewide in 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 31% of Nebraska's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $6,000,000 | Greenwood | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Catastrophic |
| 2 | $1,500,000 | Fremont | Building fires | Major |
| 3 | $1,158,500 | City of North Sioux | Building fires | Major |
| 4 | $1,000,000 | Shelton | Rail vehicle fire | Major |
| 5 | $1,000,000 | Riverdale | Grass fire | Major |
| 6 | $750,000 | OMAHA | Building fires | Major |
| 7 | $600,000 | Riverdale | Grass fire | Major |
| 8 | $600,000 | Riverdale | Building fires | Major |
| 9 | $600,000 | Riverdale | Building fires | Major |
| 10 | $600,000 | Gretna | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major |
Per-capita rates let us compare Nebraska apples-to-apples to the national average.
12 largest reporting cities by population.
Top 10 counties by reported NFIRS incidents in 2025.
| # | County | Incidents | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Douglas County | 3,098 | 502,875 |
| 2 | Lancaster County | 1,660 | 302,004 |
| 3 | Lincoln County | 928 | 26,211 |
| 4 | Sarpy County | 527 | 131,044 |
| 5 | Scotts Bluff County | 368 | 28,046 |
| 6 | Dodge County | 209 | 32,508 |
| 7 | Buffalo County | 185 | 41,394 |
| 8 | Hall County | 129 | 56,788 |
| 9 | Cass County | 113 | 13,707 |
| 10 | Saunders County | 107 | 14,067 |
Top 4 counties by NFIRS incidents per 1,000 residents (population ≥ 50,000). Surfaces signal beyond the mega-counties.
| # | County | Inc / 1k | Incidents | Population | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Douglas County | 6.16 | 3,098 | 502,875 | |
| 2 | Lancaster County | 5.50 | 1,660 | 302,004 | |
| 3 | Sarpy County | 4.02 | 527 | 131,044 | |
| 4 | Hall County | 2.27 | 129 | 56,788 |
By incident count in 2025.
By acres burned. Sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.
| # | Name | Year | Agency | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
636 perimeters and 273,086 acres recorded since 1900.
| Decade | Fires | Acres | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 2 | 17,155 | |
| 1970s | 53 | 7,839 | |
| 1980s | 117 | 20,207 | |
| 1990s | 109 | 12,631 | |
| 2000s | 121 | 82,450 | |
| 2010s | 122 | 91,923 | |
| 2020s | 112 | 40,881 |
FPA-FOD ignitions by decade, broken down by cause category. Each row sums to the decade's total; the bars show the share each cause contributed.
| Decade | Total fires | Share by cause |
|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 412 | |
| 2000s | 3,147 | |
| 2010s | 7,220 | |
| 2020s | 964 |
FPA-FOD ignitions by month, all years on record. Distinct from NFIRS — captures unreported wildlands across rural and remote terrain. 11,743 ignitions total.
333 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 5-year window. Age and gender are coarse-binned for privacy.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 11 | |
| 10-19 | 13 | |
| 20-29 | 52 | |
| 30-39 | 73 | |
| 40-49 | 62 | |
| 50-59 | 59 | |
| 60-69 | 18 | |
| 70-79 | 21 | |
| 80+ | 8 |
State totals reflect incidents reported by fire departments to NFIRS for 2025. The 5-year totals span 2021 through 2025. Wildfire perimeters and decade-by-decade counts are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History service. NFIRS reporting is voluntary, so totals are a strong indicator rather than a complete census.