In 2025, fire departments serving Windsor responded to 25 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $300K 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 76% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
145 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $726K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 37 | — | |
| 2022 | 40 | +8.1% | |
| 2023* | 13 | — | |
| 2024 | 30 | — | |
| 2025 | 25 | -16.7% |
* Well below Windsor'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 9 building fires Windsor departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 58 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 | Outside area, other | 12 | 20.7% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 9 | 15.5% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 8 | 13.8% | |
| 4 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 4 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Machinery room or area; elevator machinery room | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 11 | 19.0% |
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 Windsor mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 24 | 41.4% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 10.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 5 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 5.2% | |
| 9 | Chemical reaction | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 5.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Windsor departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Windsor sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 11,121 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,100 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,100 | 22.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,015 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 829 | 42.2 mi | |
| 1998 | Equipment and vehicle use | 630 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 617 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Debris and open burning | 612 | 34.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 580 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 7.1 mi | |
| 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 484 | 21.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 364 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 360 | 37.5 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 Windsor. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.