In 2025, fire departments serving Fennimore responded to 13 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $10K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 92% of all calls.
Jan peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
101 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.5M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 28 | — | |
| 2022 | 31 | +10.7% | |
| 2023* | 9 | — | |
| 2024 | 20 | — | |
| 2025 | 13 | -35.0% |
* Well below Fennimore'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 4 building fires Fennimore departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 22 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 | Undetermined | 4 | 18.2% | |
| 2 | Storage area, other | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Other | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 7 | 31.8% |
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 Fennimore mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 36.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 6 | Lightning | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 4.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Fennimore departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Fennimore sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,568 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 | 23.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 189 | 15.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 166 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 165 | 26.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 130 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 125 | 29.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 104 | 37.3 mi | |
| 2009 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 100 | 15.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 88 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 85 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 80 | 46.2 mi |
Top 2 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 Fennimore. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Fennimore.
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.