In 2025, fire departments serving Rice Lake responded to 144 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $550K 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 53% of all calls.
May peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
530 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $3.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 59 | — | |
| 2022* | 62 | — | |
| 2023 | 161 | — | |
| 2024 | 104 | -35.4% | |
| 2025 | 144 | +38.5% |
* Well below Rice 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 7 building fires Rice Lake departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 176 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 | 36 | 20.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 17 | 9.7% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 16 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 11 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Equipment or service area, other | 7 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Machinery room or area; elevator machinery room | 7 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Storage area, other | 6 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Other | 5 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 58 | 33.0% |
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 Rice Lake mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 74 | 42.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 13 | 7.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 13 | 7.4% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 12 | 6.8% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 10 | 5.7% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 10 | 5.7% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 8 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Match | 5 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 15 | 8.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Rice Lake departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $550,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $40,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $7,800 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Rice Lake sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 3,517 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1,350 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Fireworks | 390 | 43.1 mi | |
| 1998 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 240 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Debris and open burning | 148 | 34.9 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 140 | 19.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 123 | 38.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 120 | 33.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Natural | 100 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 75 | 35.1 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 75 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 71 | 46.9 mi | |
| 1993 | Debris and open burning | 70 | 29.0 mi |
Top 3 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 Rice Lake. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Rice 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.