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2025 County Report

Fires in Douglas County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Douglas County responded to 318 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $275K property loss.

29,510 residents FIPS 55031 42 cities · 19 fire depts
Total incidents
318
1,670 across 5 years
Building fires
70
35 wildland
Property loss
$2.6M
$1.9M structure · $704K contents
Casualties
1 / 1
1 civ deaths · 1 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.

318
Total Incidents
Building fires 70 22.0%
Fire, other 31 9.7%
Power line down 28 8.8%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 26 8.2%
Forest, woods or wildland fire 15 4.7%
All other categories 148 46.5%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Douglas County?

Jun peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 27
Feb 18
Mar 40
Apr 35
May 40
Jun 42
Jul 29
Aug 19
Sep 22
Oct 31
Nov 8
Dec 7
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Douglas County

1,670 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 308
2022 377
2023 336
2024 331
2025 318
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 70 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
56%
49
Cause undetermined
23%
20
Intentional / arson
2%
2
Equipment / heat source failure
3%
3
Under investigation
14%
12
Act of nature (lightning)
2%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.4M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Douglas County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 73% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $275,000 foxboro Building fires Major
2 $275,000 Superior Building fires Major
3 $250,000 Foxboro Building fires Major
4 $150,000 Superior Building fires Significant
5 $100,900 Bennett Building fires Significant
6 $84,100 Lake Nebagamon Building fires Significant
7 $83,000 Gordon Building fires Significant
8 $70,000 Superior Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $60,000 SUPERIOR Building fires Significant
10 $60,000 Solon Springs Building fires Significant
06 How Douglas County compares

Douglas County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

10.78
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Douglas County
10.78
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
2.37
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Douglas County
2.37
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
33.9
Civilian fire deaths per million
Douglas County
33.9
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Douglas County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55031.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Douglas County

19 departments report from this county.

Superior Fire Dept
Superior
FDID 16010 167 incidents 40 paid
Amnicon Vol Fire Dept
Wentworkth
FDID 16180 17 incidents
Bennett Vol Fire Dept
Bennett
FDID 16020 16 incidents 12 vol
Parkland Fire Dept
South Range
FDID 16160 15 incidents
Superior TN Vol Fire Dept
Superior
FDID 16170 15 incidents 25 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.