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2025 County Report

Fires in Grant County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Grant County responded to 356 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $500K property loss.

32,512 residents FIPS 55043 50 cities · 21 fire depts
Total incidents
356
1,642 across 5 years
Building fires
106
88 wildland
Property loss
$5.1M
$3.4M structure · $1.7M contents
Casualties
0 / 6
0 civ deaths · 3 civ inj · 3 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 64% of all calls.

356
Total Incidents
Building fires 106 29.8%
Grass fire 44 12.4%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 35 9.8%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 27 7.6%
Passenger vehicle fire 14 3.9%
All other categories 130 36.5%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Grant County?

Jan peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 56
Feb 44
Mar 47
Apr 21
May 23
Jun 31
Jul 20
Aug 31
Sep 13
Oct 39
Nov 23
Dec 8
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Grant County

1,642 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 307
2022 350
2023 297
2024 332
2025 356
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 106 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
57%
71
Cause undetermined
16%
20
Intentional / arson
2%
3
Equipment / heat source failure
18%
23
Under investigation
2%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
5%
6
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $2.3M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Grant County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 67% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $500,000 PLATTEVILLE Building fires Major
2 $300,000 Annaton Building fires Major
3 $250,000 Bloomingtoh Building fires Major
4 $250,000 Village of Livingsto Building fires Major
5 $200,000 Mount Hope Building fires Significant
6 $188,800 PLATTEVILLE Building fires Significant
7 $185,000 Village of Muscoda Building fires Significant
8 $150,000 Lancaster Building fires Significant
9 $150,000 Muscoda Building fires Significant
10 $125,000 Muscoda Building fires Significant
06 How Grant County compares

Grant County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

10.95
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Grant County
10.95
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
3.26
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Grant County
3.26
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Grant County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Grant County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55043.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Grant County

21 departments report from this county.

Platteville Fire Department
Platteville
FDID 22200 76 incidents
Boscobel Vol Fire Dept
Boscobel
FDID 22050 32 incidents
Lancaster Fire Dept
Lancaster
FDID 22140 30 incidents 42 vol
Bloomington Fire Dept
Bloomington
FDID 22020 27 incidents
Potosi Vol Fire Dept
potosi
FDID 22060 26 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.