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2025 County Report

Fires in Jo Daviess County, IL

In 2025, fire departments serving Jo Daviess County responded to 218 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $300K property loss.

13,075 residents FIPS 17085 31 cities · 9 fire depts
Total incidents
218
849 across 5 years
Building fires
25
64 wildland
Property loss
$983K
$693K structure · $290K contents
Casualties
1 / 4
1 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 4 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Grass fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 56% of all calls.

218
Total Incidents
Grass fire 43 19.7%
Building fires 25 11.5%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 23 10.6%
Unauthorized burning 16 7.3%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 15 6.9%
All other categories 96 44.0%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Jo Daviess County?

Mar peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 22
Feb 18
Mar 39
Apr 38
May 12
Jun 8
Jul 16
Aug 14
Sep 5
Oct 13
Nov 26
Dec 7
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Jo Daviess County

849 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 176
2022 131
2023 129
2024 195
2025 218
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 25 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
60%
28
Cause undetermined
9%
4
Intentional / arson
17%
8
Equipment / heat source failure
11%
5
Under investigation
4%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
-1%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $678K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Jo Daviess County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 98% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $300,000 Galena Building fires Major
2 $160,000 Stockton Building fires Significant
3 $72,000 Stockton Building fires Significant
4 $50,000 Stockton Building fires Significant
5 $45,000 Stockton Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
6 $20,000 East Dubuque Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire Significant
7 $15,000 Apple River Building fires Significant
8 $6,000 Scales Mound Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $5,000 Apple River Building fires Significant
10 $5,000 East Dubuque Grass fire Significant
06 How Jo Daviess County compares

Jo Daviess County vs IL vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

16.67
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Jo Daviess County
16.67
IL avg
10.42
US avg
7.15
1.91
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Jo Daviess County
1.91
IL avg
1.56
US avg
0.82
76.5
Civilian fire deaths per million
Jo Daviess County
76.5
IL avg
9.9
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Jo Daviess County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 17085.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Jo Daviess County

9 departments report from this county.

STOCKTON FPD
—
FDID JE194 40 incidents 30 vol
SCALES MOUND FD
Scales Mound
FDID JE183 36 incidents 75 vol
EAST DUBUQUE FD
—
FDID JE134 26 incidents 40 vol
GALENA FPD
—
FDID JE154 24 incidents 32 vol
MENOMINEEDUNLEITH FD
E Dubuque
FDID JE124 23 incidents 25 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in IL

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Red Shale RX 2024 FWS 1,290
2 Herrin Flats RX 2024 FWS 1,134
3 Beach RX 2024 FWS 864
4 Hampton North RX 2024 FWS 708
5 Hampton RX 2024 FWS 668
6 Grassy Creek 2 RX 2024 FWS 621
7 Chamness RX 2024 FWS 610
8 Greenbriar RX 2024 FWS 590
9 COR - Devils Kitchen West RX 2024 FWS 468
10 Smith RX 2024 FWS 366

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.