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2025 County Report

Fires in Crow Wing County, MN

In 2025, fire departments serving Crow Wing County responded to 365 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $483K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

38,145 residents FIPS 27035 39 cities · 14 fire depts
Total incidents
365
1,804 across 5 years
Building fires
58
80 wildland
Property loss
$5.9M
$4.5M structure · $1.4M contents
Casualties
1 / 0
1 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.

365
Total Incidents
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 62 17.0%
Building fires 58 15.9%
Grass fire 35 9.6%
Unauthorized burning 27 7.4%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 25 6.8%
All other categories 158 43.3%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Crow Wing County?

May peaks. Aug dips.

Jan 35
Feb 24
Mar 38
Apr 36
May 56
Jun 37
Jul 31
Aug 14
Sep 15
Oct 28
Nov 29
Dec 22
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Crow Wing County

1,804 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 384
2022 364
2023 348
2024 343
2025 365
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 58 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
73%
83
Cause undetermined
2%
2
Intentional / arson
7%
8
Equipment / heat source failure
5%
6
Under investigation
11%
12
Act of nature (lightning)
2%
2
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $3.3M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Crow Wing County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 74% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $483,200 Nisswa Building fires Major
2 $475,000 Brainerd Building fires Major
3 $407,800 Cross Lake Building fires Major
4 $320,700 Pequot Lakes Building fires Major
5 $320,000 Breezy Point Building fires Major
6 $300,000 Deerwood Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Major
7 $300,000 Deerwood Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Major
8 $250,000 Cross Lake Building fires Major
9 $240,000 Garrison Building fires Significant
10 $240,000 Garrison Building fires Significant
06 How Crow Wing County compares

Crow Wing County vs MN vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

9.57
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Crow Wing County
9.57
MN avg
7.36
US avg
7.15
1.52
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Crow Wing County
1.52
MN avg
1.08
US avg
0.82
26.2
Civilian fire deaths per million
Crow Wing County
26.2
MN avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Crow Wing County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 27035.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Crow Wing County

14 departments report from this county.

BRAINERD FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 18314 169 incidents
PEQUOT LAKES FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 18112 39 incidents
GARRISON FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 18108 36 incidents
NISSWA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 18111 34 incidents
CROSSLAKE FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 18103 33 incidents
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in MN

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Greenwood 2021 USFS 26,829
2 MNGLR-FY21-WF-Oxcart 2021 FWS 12,536
3 Palsburg 2015 FWS 4,456
4 Agassiz NWR Project RX 2024 FWS 4,208
5 MNSBR-FY19-RX-UNIT 4a 6 6a 2019 FWS 2,989
6 RL 005 UNIT 8 & 9 2021 BIA 2,937
7 4 Square Mile RX 2024 FWS 2,481
8 RL 029 2018 BIA 2,360
9 Unit 8E RX 2024 FWS 2,241
10 MNSBR-FY19-RX-UNIT 7 9 11 2019 FWS 2,193

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.