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2025 County Report

Fires in Jackson County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Jackson County responded to 167 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $300K property loss.

6,959 residents FIPS 55053 26 cities · 8 fire depts
Total incidents
167
850 across 5 years
Building fires
37
34 wildland
Property loss
$2.7M
$1.7M structure · $1.0M contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 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 52% of all calls.

167
Total Incidents
Building fires 37 22.2%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 15 9.0%
Aircraft standby 14 8.4%
Grass fire 11 6.6%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 10 6.0%
All other categories 80 47.9%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Jackson County?

May peaks. Jun dips.

Jan 24
Feb 12
Mar 25
Apr 21
May 27
Jun 6
Jul 12
Aug 7
Sep 10
Oct 7
Nov 8
Dec 8
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Jackson County

850 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 167
2022 174
2023 155
2024 187
2025 167
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 37 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
47%
25
Cause undetermined
23%
12
Intentional / arson
13%
7
Equipment / heat source failure
13%
7
Under investigation
2%
1
Act of nature (lightning)
2%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.3M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Jackson County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 78% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $300,000 BLACK RIVER FALLS Building fires Major
2 $200,000 BLACK RIVER FALLS Building fires Significant
3 $200,000 Black River Falls Building fires Significant
4 $175,000 BLACK RIVER FALLS Building fires Significant
5 $100,000 BLACK RIVER FALLS Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
6 $100,000 BLACK RIVER FALLS Building fires Significant
7 $75,000 Alma Center Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
8 $50,000 Black River Falls Building fires Significant
9 $50,000 Black River Falls Building fires Significant
10 $50,000 BLACK RIVER FALLS Building fires Significant
06 How Jackson County compares

Jackson County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

24
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Jackson County
24
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
5.32
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Jackson County
5.32
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Jackson County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Jackson County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55053.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Jackson County

8 departments report from this county.

Black River Falls Fire Dept
Black River Falls
FDID 27040 66 incidents
Hixton Vol Fire Dept
Hixton
FDID 27050 34 incidents
Melrose Vol Fire Dept
Melrose
FDID 27060 28 incidents 28 vol
County Line Fire and Rescue Dept
Merrillan
FDID 27030 19 incidents
Hatfield Fire Dept
Merrillan
FDID 10140 11 incidents 23 vol
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.