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2025 County Report

Fires in Crawford County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Crawford County responded to 120 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $399K property loss.

8,685 residents FIPS 55023 25 cities · 9 fire depts
Total incidents
120
561 across 5 years
Building fires
10
42 wildland
Property loss
$851K
$672K structure · $179K contents
Casualties
0 / 1
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 1 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Grass fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.

120
Total Incidents
Grass fire 22 18.3%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 13 10.8%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 11 9.2%
Building fires 10 8.3%
Carbon monoxide incident 8 6.7%
All other categories 56 46.7%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Crawford County?

Mar peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 13
Feb 10
Mar 27
Apr 19
May 12
Jun 11
Jul 6
Aug 4
Sep 0
Oct 4
Nov 10
Dec 4
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Crawford County

561 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 97
2022 100
2023 123
2024 121
2025 120
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 10 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
58%
14
Cause undetermined
8%
2
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
12%
3
Under investigation
12%
3
Act of nature (lightning)
10%
2
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $669K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Crawford County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $399,000 Prairie du Chien Building fires Major
2 $200,000 Prairie duChien Building fires Significant
3 $40,000 Gays Mills Building fires Significant
4 $6,000 Eastman Passenger vehicle fire Significant
5 $5,000 Soldiers Grove Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire Significant
6 $5,000 EASTMAN Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle Significant
7 $5,000 Prairie duChien Passenger vehicle fire Significant
8 $3,000 Soldiers Grove Grass fire Significant
9 $3,000 Soldiers Grove Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire Significant
10 $3,000 Soldiers Grove Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire Significant
06 How Crawford County compares

Crawford County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

13.82
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Crawford County
13.82
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
1.15
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Crawford County
1.15
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Crawford County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Crawford County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55023.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Crawford County

9 departments report from this county.

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN FIRE DEPT
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN
FDID 12080 44 incidents
Soldiers Grove Fire Dept
Soldiers Grove
FDID 12020 19 incidents
Gays Mills Vol Fire Dept
Gay Mills
FDID 12060 16 incidents
Seneca Vol Fire Dept
Seneca
FDID 12010 14 incidents
Bridgeport Vol Fire Dept
Prairie Du Chien
FDID 12040 13 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.