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2025 County Report

Fires in Gloucester County, VA

In 2025, fire departments serving Gloucester County responded to 259 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $380K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

14,529 residents FIPS 51073 48 cities · 2 fire depts
Total incidents
259
967 across 5 years
Building fires
42
64 wildland
Property loss
$4.8M
$3.9M structure · $971K contents
Casualties
0 / 3
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 3 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.

259
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 44 17.0%
Building fires 42 16.2%
Aircraft standby 26 10.0%
Authorized controlled burning 20 7.7%
Fire, other 15 5.8%
All other categories 112 43.2%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Gloucester County?

Mar peaks. May dips.

Jan 36
Feb 19
Mar 51
Apr 21
May 1
Jun 4
Jul 20
Aug 11
Sep 21
Oct 24
Nov 26
Dec 25
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Gloucester County

967 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 84
2022 150
2023 217
2024 257
2025 259
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 42 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
46%
51
Cause undetermined
24%
27
Intentional / arson
9%
10
Equipment / heat source failure
11%
12
Under investigation
8%
9
Act of nature (lightning)
2%
2
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $2.9M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Gloucester County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 75% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $380,000 Hayes Building fires Major
2 $375,000 Hayes Building fires Major
3 $305,260 Hayes Building fires Major
4 $305,260 Hayes Building fires Major
5 $284,010 GLOUCESTER Building fires Major
6 $284,010 GLOUCESTER Building fires Major
7 $260,000 GLOUCESTER Building fires Major
8 $260,000 GLOUCESTER Building fires Major
9 $231,920 Hayes Building fires Significant
10 $231,920 Hayes Building fires Significant
06 How Gloucester County compares

Gloucester County vs VA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

17.83
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Gloucester County
17.83
VA avg
8.68
US avg
7.15
2.89
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Gloucester County
2.89
VA avg
0.84
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Gloucester County
0
VA avg
6.1
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Gloucester County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 51073.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Gloucester County

2 departments report from this county.

Abingdon Vol Fire Rescue
Bena
FDID 07301 132 incidents
Gloucester Vol Fire Rescue
Gloucester
FDID 07310 125 incidents 150 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in VA

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 PINNACLES 2000 NPS 18,055
2 Mount Pleasant 2016 USFS 11,210
3 Waterfall Mountain 2024 USFS 6,398
4 Waites Run 2024 USFS 6,223
5 OLD RAG 2000 NPS 6,127
6 BIG RUN 1986 NPS 4,696
7 FULTZ RUN 2002 NPS 4,194
8 Shop Run 1999 NPS 3,229
9 Raven Rock 2016 USFS 2,401
10 Tye River 2018 USFS 2,057

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.