In 2025, fire departments serving Fond du Lac responded to 365 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $450K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,818 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $6.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 306 | — | |
| 2022 | 409 | +33.7% | |
| 2023 | 345 | -15.6% | |
| 2024 | 393 | +13.9% | |
| 2025 | 365 | -7.1% |
For the 49 building fires Fond du Lac departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 495 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 108 | 21.8% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 50 | 10.1% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 48 | 9.7% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 35 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 26 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Exterior, exposed surface | 19 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 18 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 17 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 17 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Outside area, other | 13 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 144 | 29.1% |
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 Fond du Lac mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 149 | 30.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 104 | 21.0% | |
| 3 | Radiated heat from another fire | 35 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 26 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 26 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 21 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 19 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 16 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 12 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 77 | 15.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Fond du Lac departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 80% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $450,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $65,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $60,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $55,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $37,350 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Fond du Lac sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
13 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,747 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,100 | 41.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,015 | 18.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 829 | 16.5 mi | |
| 1998 | Equipment and vehicle use | 630 | 16.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 612 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 572 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 508 | 2.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 484 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 385 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 366 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 364 | 21.2 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 Fond du Lac. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Fond du Lac.
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.