In 2025, fire departments serving Random Lake responded to 41 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $80K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
138 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $130K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 17 | — | |
| 2022 | 35 | +105.9% | |
| 2023* | 16 | — | |
| 2024 | 29 | — | |
| 2025 | 41 | +41.4% |
* Well below Random Lake'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 5 building fires Random Lake departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 16 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 | Structural area, other | 3 | 18.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 9 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 10 | Outside area, other | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 12.5% |
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 Random Lake mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 6 | 37.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 12.5% | |
| 6 | Incendiary device | 1 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 6.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Random Lake departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $25,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $200 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Random Lake sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,223 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 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,015 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 829 | 41.7 mi | |
| 1998 | Equipment and vehicle use | 630 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 612 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 508 | 30.8 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 364 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 360 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 325 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 280 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 250 | 32.0 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 53075 | 138 |
Six Wisconsin cities with population within ±25% of Random Lake. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Random Lake.
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.