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2025 County Report

Fires in Bayfield County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Bayfield County responded to 146 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $550K property loss.

4,208 residents FIPS 55007 30 cities · 13 fire depts
Total incidents
146
626 across 5 years
Building fires
36
17 wildland
Property loss
$1.1M
$990K structure · $111K contents
Casualties
1 / 0
1 civ deaths · 0 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 53% of all calls.

146
Total Incidents
Building fires 36 24.7%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 17 11.6%
Power line down 9 6.2%
Passenger vehicle fire 8 5.5%
Grass fire 7 4.8%
All other categories 69 47.3%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Bayfield County?

May peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 18
Feb 7
Mar 11
Apr 8
May 27
Jun 17
Jul 14
Aug 12
Sep 3
Oct 17
Nov 11
Dec 1
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Bayfield County

626 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 100
2022 145
2023 120
2024 115
2025 146
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 36 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
56%
27
Cause undetermined
25%
12
Intentional / arson
2%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
10%
5
Under investigation
6%
3
Act of nature (lightning)
1%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $970K in losses

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

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $550,000 Bayfield Building fires Major
2 $180,000 Drummond Fire, other Significant
3 $60,000 Mason Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
4 $50,000 Mason Fire, other Significant
5 $50,000 Iron River Passenger vehicle fire Significant
6 $20,000 Tripp Building fires Significant
7 $20,000 Iron River Building fires Significant
8 $20,000 Hughes Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
9 $10,000 Drummond Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
10 $10,000 Herbster Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other Significant
06 How Bayfield County compares

Bayfield County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

34.7
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Bayfield County
34.7
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
8.56
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Bayfield County
8.56
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
237.6
Civilian fire deaths per million
Bayfield County
237.6
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Bayfield County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55007.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Bayfield County

13 departments report from this county.

WASHBURN FIRE DEPT
Washburn
FDID 04190 34 incidents
BAYFIELD VOL FIRE DEPT
Bayfield
FDID 04030 24 incidents
IRON RIVER VOL FIRE DEPT
Iron River
FDID 04120 24 incidents
MASON RURAL FIRE DEPT
Mason
FDID 04130 22 incidents
RED CLIFF TRIBAL FIRE DEPT
Bayfield
FDID 04200 19 incidents 26 vol
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.