In 2025, fire departments serving Blue Mounds responded to 32 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
83 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $443K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 9 | — | |
| 2022* | 7 | — | |
| 2023* | 9 | — | |
| 2024 | 26 | — | |
| 2025 | 32 | +23.1% |
* Well below Blue Mounds's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 0 building fires Blue Mounds departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 15 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 6 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Wall assembly | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 9 | Undetermined | 1 | 6.7% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Blue Mounds mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 3 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 3 | 20.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 6.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Blue Mounds sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 7,476 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,400 | 26.4 mi | |
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,100 | 32.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 617 | 25.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 580 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 26.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 484 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 290 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 254 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 180 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Smoking | 169 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2000 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 140 | 47.0 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Wisconsin cities with population within ±25% of Blue Mounds. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 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. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.