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2025 County Report

Fires in James City County, VA

In 2025, fire departments serving James City County responded to 76 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $100K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

0 residents FIPS 51095 19 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
76
386 across 5 years
Building fires
7
17 wildland
Property loss
$361K
$246K structure · $115K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.

76
Total Incidents
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 13 17.1%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 8 10.5%
Building fires 7 9.2%
Power line down 7 9.2%
Special outside fire, other 5 6.6%
All other categories 36 47.4%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in James City County?

May peaks. Aug dips.

Jan 7
Feb 6
Mar 8
Apr 5
May 10
Jun 5
Jul 6
Aug 4
Sep 4
Oct 8
Nov 4
Dec 9
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in James City County

386 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 94
2022 89
2023 53
2024 74
2025 76
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 7 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
59%
22
Cause undetermined
11%
4
Intentional / arson
5%
2
Equipment / heat source failure
11%
4
Under investigation
5%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
9%
2
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $244K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in James City County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 99% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $100,000 Toano Building fires Significant
2 $100,000 Toano Building fires Significant
3 $10,000 Toano Building fires Significant
4 $10,000 Toano Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire Significant
5 $5,000 Toano Building fires Significant
6 $5,000 Toano Passenger vehicle fire Significant
7 $5,000 Toano Building fires Significant
8 $5,000 Toano Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $2,500 Toano Outside storage fire Significant
10 $1,500 Toano Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How James City County compares

James City County vs VA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

0
Incidents per 1,000 residents
James City County
0
VA avg
8.68
US avg
7.15
0
Building fires per 1,000 residents
James City County
0
VA avg
0.84
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
James City County
0
VA avg
6.1
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in James City County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 51095.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in James City County

1 departments report from this county.

James City Co Fire Dept
WILLIAMSBURG
FDID 09500 476 incidents 88 paid 55 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in VA

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 PINNACLES 2000 NPS 18,055
2 Mount Pleasant 2016 USFS 11,210
3 Waterfall Mountain 2024 USFS 6,398
4 Waites Run 2024 USFS 6,223
5 OLD RAG 2000 NPS 6,127
6 BIG RUN 1986 NPS 4,696
7 FULTZ RUN 2002 NPS 4,194
8 Shop Run 1999 NPS 3,229
9 Raven Rock 2016 USFS 2,401
10 Tye River 2018 USFS 2,057

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.