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2025 County Report

Fires in Foster County, ND

In 2025, fire departments serving Foster County responded to 22 fire and hazmat incidents. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

2,342 residents FIPS 38031 10 cities · 0 fire depts
Total incidents
22
134 across 5 years
Building fires
1
16 wildland
Property loss
$0
$0 structure · $0 contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Grass fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 82% of all calls.

22
Total Incidents
Grass fire 14 63.6%
Building fires 1 4.5%
Cooking fire, confined to container 1 4.5%
Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire 1 4.5%
Natural vegetation fire, other 1 4.5%
All other categories 4 18.2%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Foster County?

Jun peaks. Jan dips.

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

Year over year in Foster County

134 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 48
2022 23
2023 21
2024 20
2025 22
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 1 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
58%
11
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
21%
4
Equipment / heat source failure
0%
0
Under investigation
16%
3
Act of nature (lightning)
5%
1
06 How Foster County compares

Foster County vs ND vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

9.39
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Foster County
9.39
ND avg
7.91
US avg
7.15
0.43
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Foster County
0.43
ND avg
0.77
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Foster County
0
ND avg
11.2
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Foster County

10 cities mapped to FIPS 38031.

09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in ND

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Windy 2021 USFS 16,161
2 Elkhorn 2024 USFS 10,884
3 Pautre 2013 USFS 10,679
4 LITTLE SWALLOW 2021 BIA 9,057
5 BlackHorseCreek 2006 USFS 7,830
6 Mike'SCreek 1988 USFS 5,819
7 Hwy31 & 101ST West 2022 BIA 5,289
8 Horse Pasture 2021 USFS 4,647
9 Roosevelt Creek 2021 USFS 4,580
10 RidgeRoad 2015 USFS 3,328

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.