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2025 County Report

Fires in Columbia County, WA

In 2025, fire departments serving Columbia County responded to 53 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $3K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

2,863 residents FIPS 53013 23 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
53
256 across 5 years
Building fires
7
25 wildland
Property loss
$7K
$6K structure · $1K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 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 56% of all calls.

53
Total Incidents
Building fires 7 13.2%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 7 13.2%
Grass fire 7 13.2%
Natural vegetation fire, other 5 9.4%
Forest, woods or wildland fire 4 7.5%
All other categories 23 43.4%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Columbia County?

Jul peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 1
Feb 1
Mar 9
Apr 3
May 7
Jun 2
Jul 16
Aug 5
Sep 1
Oct 4
Nov 4
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Columbia County

256 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 61
2022 60
2023 57
2024 25
2025 53
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 7 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
44%
7
Cause undetermined
19%
3
Intentional / arson
12%
2
Equipment / heat source failure
25%
4
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

2 fires · $6K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Columbia County during 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $3,000 Dayton Passenger vehicle fire Significant
2 $2,500 Dayton Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Columbia County compares

Columbia County vs WA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

18.51
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Columbia County
18.51
WA avg
8.31
US avg
7.15
2.44
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Columbia County
2.44
WA avg
0.69
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Columbia County
0
WA avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Columbia County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 53013.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Columbia County

1 departments report from this county.

Columbia1 Starbuck
Starbuck
FDID 07D01 0 incidents 18 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in WA

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Carlton 2014 BLM 230,101
2 Cold Springs 2020 BIA 189,911
3 Range 12 2016 DOD 176,834
4 Range 12 2016 BLM 175,245
5 Tunk Block 2015 BLM 165,004
6 North Star 2015 USFS 165,003
7 Diamond Creek 2017 USFS 126,836
8 Lime Belt 2015 BLM 120,526
9 SCHNEIDER SPRINGS 2021 USFS 107,352
10 Colockum Tarps 2013 BLM 81,513

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.