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2025 County Report

Fires in Charles City County, VA

In 2025, fire departments serving Charles City County responded to 64 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $150K property loss.

31 residents FIPS 51036 17 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
64
379 across 5 years
Building fires
6
10 wildland
Property loss
$416K
$279K structure · $138K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 48% of all calls.

64
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 8 12.5%
Power line down 7 10.9%
Building fires 6 9.4%
Passenger vehicle fire 5 7.8%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 5 7.8%
All other categories 33 51.6%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Charles City County?

Feb peaks. May dips.

Jan 7
Feb 8
Mar 7
Apr 4
May 0
Jun 1
Jul 7
Aug 7
Sep 5
Oct 4
Nov 8
Dec 6
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Charles City County

379 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 48
2022 89
2023 103
2024 75
2025 64
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 6 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
50%
11
Cause undetermined
14%
3
Intentional / arson
5%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
14%
3
Under investigation
9%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
8%
2
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $269K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Charles City County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 96% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $150,000 Charles City Building fires Significant
2 $30,000 Charles City Building fires Significant
3 $20,000 Charles city Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
4 $20,000 Charles City Building fires Significant
5 $15,000 Charles City Passenger vehicle fire Significant
6 $10,000 Charles City Building fires Significant
7 $10,000 Charles City Passenger vehicle fire Significant
8 $5,000 Charles City Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other Significant
9 $4,500 CHARLES CITY Water vehicle fire Significant
10 $4,000 Charles City Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Charles City County compares

Charles City County vs VA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

2064.52
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Charles City County
2064.52
VA avg
8.68
US avg
7.15
193.55
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Charles City County
193.55
VA avg
0.84
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Charles City County
0
VA avg
6.1
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Charles City County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 51036.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Charles City County

1 departments report from this county.

Charles City Vol Fire EMS
—
FDID 03601 1 incidents 15 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in VA

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 PINNACLES 2000 NPS 18,055
2 Mount Pleasant 2016 USFS 11,210
3 Waterfall Mountain 2024 USFS 6,398
4 Waites Run 2024 USFS 6,223
5 OLD RAG 2000 NPS 6,127
6 BIG RUN 1986 NPS 4,696
7 FULTZ RUN 2002 NPS 4,194
8 Shop Run 1999 NPS 3,229
9 Raven Rock 2016 USFS 2,401
10 Tye River 2018 USFS 2,057

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.