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2025 County Report

Fires in Island County, WA

In 2025, fire departments serving Island County responded to 530 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $857K property loss.

50,757 residents FIPS 53029 40 cities · 0 fire depts
Total incidents
530
2,954 across 5 years
Building fires
46
70 wildland
Property loss
$8.6M
$6.1M structure · $2.5M contents
Casualties
1 / 0
1 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 46% of all calls.

530
Total Incidents
Power line down 82 15.5%
Building fires 46 8.7%
Unauthorized burning 44 8.3%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 42 7.9%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 29 5.5%
All other categories 287 54.2%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Island County?

Dec peaks. Jan dips.

Jan 28
Feb 35
Mar 29
Apr 33
May 42
Jun 52
Jul 65
Aug 40
Sep 45
Oct 46
Nov 33
Dec 82
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Island County

2,954 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 850
2022 587
2023 483
2024 504
2025 530
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 46 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
42%
44
Cause undetermined
19%
20
Intentional / arson
7%
7
Equipment / heat source failure
16%
17
Under investigation
10%
10
Act of nature (lightning)
6%
7
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $4.5M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Island County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 74% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $857,300 Coupeville Building fires Major
2 $700,000 CAMANO ISLAND Building fires Major
3 $689,432 OAK HARBOR Building fires Major
4 $439,000 OAK HARBOR Building fires Major
5 $375,000 CAMANO ISLAND Building fires Major
6 $300,000 Camano Island Building fires Major
7 $288,000 Coupeville Building fires Major
8 $284,042 Langley Building fires Major
9 $284,042 Langley Building fires Major
10 $276,120 OAK HARBOR Building fires Major
06 How Island County compares

Island County vs WA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

10.44
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Island County
10.44
WA avg
8.31
US avg
7.15
0.91
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Island County
0.91
WA avg
0.69
US avg
0.82
19.7
Civilian fire deaths per million
Island County
19.7
WA avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Island County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 53029.

CityPopulation 
Oak Harbor 24,458 View ›
Camano 17,642 View ›
Whidbey Island Station 2,482 View ›
Coupeville 2,040 View ›
Freeland 1,894 View ›
Clinton 1,165 View ›
Langley 1,076 View ›
Sunny Shore Acres 0 View ›
Penn Cove Park 0 View ›
Pebble Beach 0 View ›
Rodena Beach 0 View ›
Mabana 0 View ›
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in WA

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Carlton 2014 BLM 230,101
2 Cold Springs 2020 BIA 189,911
3 Range 12 2016 DOD 176,834
4 Range 12 2016 BLM 175,245
5 Tunk Block 2015 BLM 165,004
6 North Star 2015 USFS 165,003
7 Diamond Creek 2017 USFS 126,836
8 Lime Belt 2015 BLM 120,526
9 SCHNEIDER SPRINGS 2021 USFS 107,352
10 Colockum Tarps 2013 BLM 81,513

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.