In 2025, fire departments serving Sister Bay responded to 14 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 86% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
64 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $211K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 28 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023 | 12 | — | |
| 2024 | 8 | -33.3% | |
| 2025 | 14 | +75.0% |
* Well below Sister Bay'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 Sister Bay departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 7 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 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Other | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 14.3% |
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 Sister Bay mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 42.9% | |
| 2 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 2 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 1 | 14.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sister Bay sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,737 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 275 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2004 | Debris and open burning | 215 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Natural | 127 | 33.0 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 90 | 47.8 mi | |
| 1998 | Debris and open burning | 88 | 4.7 mi | |
| 1994 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 84 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Other causes | 73 | 48.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Debris and open burning | 58 | 35.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 54 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 53 | 39.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Equipment and vehicle use | 53 | 25.1 mi | |
| 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 45 | 47.6 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 Sister Bay. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Sister Bay.
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.