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2025 County Report

Fires in Forest County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Forest County responded to 72 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $200K property loss.

3,030 residents FIPS 55041 19 cities · 8 fire depts
Total incidents
72
318 across 5 years
Building fires
12
13 wildland
Property loss
$251K
$201K structure · $50K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Power line down lead by count. Top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.

72
Total Incidents
Power line down 20 27.8%
Building fires 12 16.7%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 6 8.3%
Carbon monoxide incident 6 8.3%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 5 6.9%
All other categories 23 31.9%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Forest County?

Mar peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 10
Feb 2
Mar 11
Apr 10
May 5
Jun 6
Jul 3
Aug 4
Sep 2
Oct 8
Nov 10
Dec 1
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Forest County

318 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 54
2022 68
2023 42
2024 82
2025 72
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 12 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
69%
9
Cause undetermined
8%
1
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
8%
1
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
15%
2
05 The biggest fires

3 fires · $201K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Forest County during 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $200,000 Wabeno Building fires Significant
2 $500 Wabeno Fires in structures other than in a building Significant
3 $50 Armstrong Creek Grass fire Significant
06 How Forest County compares

Forest County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

23.76
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Forest County
23.76
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
3.96
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Forest County
3.96
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Forest County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Forest County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55041.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Forest County

8 departments report from this county.

Crandon Vol Frie Dept
Crandon
FDID 21010 35 incidents
Laona Fire Dept
Laona
FDID 21030 17 incidents
WabenoSoperton Vol Fire Dept
Wabeno
FDID 21040 10 incidents
Pickerel Vol Fire Dept
Pickerel
FDID 21080 9 incidents
HILES VOL FIRE DEPT
HILES
FDID 21020 2 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.