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2025 County Report

Fires in Iowa County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Iowa County responded to 261 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $300K property loss.

13,577 residents FIPS 55049 20 cities · 11 fire depts
Total incidents
261
827 across 5 years
Building fires
72
91 wildland
Property loss
$1.5M
$990K structure · $520K contents
Casualties
1 / 3
1 civ deaths · 3 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 66% of all calls.

261
Total Incidents
Building fires 72 27.6%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 39 14.9%
Grass fire 26 10.0%
Forest, woods or wildland fire 20 7.7%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 16 6.1%
All other categories 88 33.7%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Iowa County?

Mar peaks. Jun dips.

Jan 19
Feb 21
Mar 48
Apr 34
May 21
Jun 4
Jul 23
Aug 16
Sep 29
Oct 19
Nov 17
Dec 10
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Iowa County

827 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 101
2022 105
2023 192
2024 168
2025 261
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 72 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
66%
41
Cause undetermined
11%
7
Intentional / arson
3%
2
Equipment / heat source failure
16%
10
Under investigation
2%
1
Act of nature (lightning)
2%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $939K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Iowa County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 95% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $300,000 Town of Arena Building fires Major
2 $125,000 Barneveld Building fires Significant
3 $100,000 montfort Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
4 $100,000 Village of Highland Building fires Significant
5 $100,000 Mineral Point Building fires Significant
6 $82,000 Hollandale Building fires Significant
7 $70,000 City of Dodgeville Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
8 $30,000 Avoca Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other Significant
9 $17,000 City of Dodgeville Passenger vehicle fire Significant
10 $15,000 dodgeville Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Iowa County compares

Iowa County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

19.22
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Iowa County
19.22
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
5.3
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Iowa County
5.3
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
73.7
Civilian fire deaths per million
Iowa County
73.7
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Iowa County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55049.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Iowa County

11 departments report from this county.

Mineral Point Fire Dept INC
Mineral Point
FDID 25120 44 incidents
BarneveldBrigham Fire Dept
Barneveld
FDID 25030 39 incidents
Hollandale Vol Fire Dept
Hollandale
FDID 25100 38 incidents
Dodgeville Vol Fire Dept
DODGEVILLE
FDID 25080 37 incidents
Ridgeway Fire Dept
Ridgeway
FDID 25060 22 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.