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2025 County Report

Fires in Iron County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Iron County responded to 33 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $25K property loss.

3,059 residents FIPS 55051 20 cities · 8 fire depts
Total incidents
33
224 across 5 years
Building fires
6
3 wildland
Property loss
$80K
$72K structure · $8K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Power line down lead by count. Top five categories make up about 64% of all calls.

33
Total Incidents
Power line down 8 24.2%
Building fires 6 18.2%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 3 9.1%
Fire, other 2 6.1%
Passenger vehicle fire 2 6.1%
All other categories 12 36.4%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Iron County?

Nov peaks. Aug dips.

Jan 1
Feb 2
Mar 2
Apr 1
May 7
Jun 4
Jul 1
Aug 0
Sep 2
Oct 3
Nov 8
Dec 2
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Iron County

224 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 43
2022 54
2023 56
2024 38
2025 33
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 6 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
36%
4
Cause undetermined
27%
3
Intentional / arson
9%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
18%
2
Under investigation
9%
1
Act of nature (lightning)
1%
0
05 The biggest fires

6 fires · $72K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Iron County during 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $25,000 Mercer Fire, other Significant
2 $22,500 Iron Belt Fire, other Significant
3 $10,000 Mercer Building fires Significant
4 $5,000 Mercer Building fires Significant
5 $5,000 Par Falls Passenger vehicle fire Significant
6 $4,000 Mercer Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Iron County compares

Iron County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

10.79
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Iron County
10.79
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
1.96
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Iron County
1.96
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Iron County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Iron County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55051.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Iron County

8 departments report from this county.

Mercer Fire Dept
Mercer
FDID 26010 10 incidents 30 vol
HURLEY VOL FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 26040 6 incidents
Kimball TWP Fire Dept
Hurley
FDID 26080 6 incidents
Sherman TWP Vol Fire Dept
Park Falls
FDID 26030 3 incidents
Montreal Fire Dept
Montreal
FDID 26090 3 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.