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2025 County Report

Fires in Holmes County, OH

In 2025, fire departments serving Holmes County responded to 244 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $150K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

8,461 residents FIPS 39075 28 cities · 0 fire depts
Total incidents
244
1,480 across 5 years
Building fires
71
29 wildland
Property loss
$1.7M
$824K structure · $837K contents
Casualties
0 / 1
0 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 62% of all calls.

244
Total Incidents
Building fires 71 29.1%
Carbon monoxide incident 31 12.7%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 25 10.2%
Power line down 13 5.3%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 12 4.9%
All other categories 92 37.7%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Holmes County?

Mar peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 20
Feb 16
Mar 47
Apr 21
May 17
Jun 26
Jul 12
Aug 25
Sep 17
Oct 11
Nov 23
Dec 9
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Holmes County

1,480 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 281
2022 375
2023 280
2024 300
2025 244
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 71 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
50%
35
Cause undetermined
9%
6
Intentional / arson
7%
5
Equipment / heat source failure
14%
10
Under investigation
17%
12
Act of nature (lightning)
3%
2
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $713K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Holmes County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 86% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $150,000 Millersburg Building fires Significant
2 $125,000 Millersburg Building fires Significant
3 $90,000 Millersburg Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
4 $70,200 Killbuck Building fires Significant
5 $65,000 Millersburg Building fires Significant
6 $51,400 Prairie Building fires Significant
7 $51,400 Big Prairie Building fires Significant
8 $50,000 GLENMONT Building fires Significant
9 $35,000 HOLMESVILLE Fires in structures other than in a building Significant
10 $25,000 Millersburg Building fires Significant
06 How Holmes County compares

Holmes County vs OH vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

28.84
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Holmes County
28.84
OH avg
11.07
US avg
7.15
8.39
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Holmes County
8.39
OH avg
1.95
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Holmes County
0
OH avg
10.3
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Holmes County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 39075.

09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in OH

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 OHOTR-FY19-RX-Blausey Spring 2019 WUI 2019 FWS 125
2 Little Storm Creek 2020 USFS 122
3 GREEN 2015 USFS 109
4 THIRTEEN 2018 USFS 105
5 Terra Vista Prescribe Fire 2021 NPS 79
6 Lawco 2023 USFS 61
7 128 2021 USFS 51
8 FY23 NERI RX Burns 2022 NPS 40
9 Rock Hollow 2023 USFS 29
10 HOADLEY 2018 USFS 24

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.