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2025 County Report

Fires in Ashland County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Ashland County responded to 148 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $300K property loss.

10,445 residents FIPS 55003 26 cities · 7 fire depts
Total incidents
148
692 across 5 years
Building fires
30
14 wildland
Property loss
$1.1M
$909K structure · $192K contents
Casualties
0 / 2
0 civ deaths · 2 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 62% of all calls.

148
Total Incidents
Building fires 30 20.3%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 23 15.5%
Power line down 23 15.5%
Carbon monoxide incident 11 7.4%
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire 5 3.4%
All other categories 56 37.8%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Ashland County?

Jun peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 6
Feb 8
Mar 10
Apr 10
May 20
Jun 24
Jul 15
Aug 15
Sep 8
Oct 9
Nov 19
Dec 4
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Ashland County

692 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 126
2022 150
2023 136
2024 132
2025 148
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 30 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
43%
13
Cause undetermined
33%
10
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
7%
2
Under investigation
13%
4
Act of nature (lightning)
4%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $891K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Ashland County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 98% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $300,000 Glidden Building fires Major
2 $200,000 Ashland Building fires Significant
3 $200,000 Glidden Building fires Significant
4 $100,000 Ashland Building fires Significant
5 $30,000 Butternut Building fires Significant
6 $25,000 Ashland Building fires Significant
7 $15,000 Ashland Building fires Significant
8 $10,000 Ashland Outside equipment fire Significant
9 $6,000 Butternut Building fires Significant
10 $5,000 Ashland Building fires Significant
06 How Ashland County compares

Ashland County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

14.17
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Ashland County
14.17
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
2.87
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Ashland County
2.87
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Ashland County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Ashland County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55003.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Ashland County

7 departments report from this county.

ASHLAND FIRE DEPT
Ashland
FDID 02010 76 incidents 24 paid
BAD RIVER VOL FIRE DEPT
Odanah
FDID 02070 18 incidents
BUTTERNUT FIRE DEPT INC
Butternut
FDID 02020 15 incidents
FOUR TOWN FIRE ASSOCIATION
Glidden
FDID 02030 15 incidents
MELLEN FIRERESCUE
Mellen
FDID 02040 10 incidents
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in WI

Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Necedah WL unit 23B RX 2024 FWS 853
2 WIHRR-FY19-RX-Cattail Desert North 2019 FWS 536
3 Peters WF 2014 FWS 363
4 WINCR-FY19-RX-Triangle Complex 2019 FWS 355
5 WISCR-FY19-RX-10 Mile 2019 FWS 352
6 WINCR-FY19-RX-PR19-20 2019 FWS 349
7 WINCR-FY19-RX-PR28 2019 FWS 293
8 WINCR-FY21-WF-Railroad 2 2021 OTH 267
9 WISCR-FY19-RX-Erickson 2019 FWS 249
10 WIHRR-FY19-RX-Collien's Ditch South 2019 FWS 224

About this data

County-level NFIRS aggregates for 2025, plus 5-year totals across 2021–2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Wildfire risk score (0–100) and Expected Annual Loss come from FEMA's National Risk Index. Drought class is the most recent USDM classification (D0 = abnormally dry through D4 = exceptional drought). Historical fire perimeters are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.