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2025 County Report

Fires in Johnson County, IL

In 2025, fire departments serving Johnson County responded to 124 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $247K property loss.

4,431 residents FIPS 17087 22 cities · 5 fire depts
Total incidents
124
557 across 5 years
Building fires
30
32 wildland
Property loss
$1.3M
$746K structure · $578K 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 54% of all calls.

124
Total Incidents
Building fires 30 24.2%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 13 10.5%
Power line down 9 7.3%
Grass fire 8 6.5%
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire 7 5.6%
All other categories 57 46.0%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Johnson County?

Mar peaks. Oct dips.

Jan 8
Feb 4
Mar 29
Apr 16
May 8
Jun 11
Jul 8
Aug 9
Sep 14
Oct 1
Nov 11
Dec 5
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Johnson County

557 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 90
2022 76
2023 110
2024 157
2025 124
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 30 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
27%
8
Cause undetermined
33%
10
Intentional / arson
23%
7
Equipment / heat source failure
10%
3
Under investigation
7%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $727K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Johnson County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 97% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $246,600 Cypress Building fires Significant
2 $200,000 New Burnside Building fires Significant
3 $75,000 Buncombe Building fires Significant
4 $50,000 Goreville Building fires Significant
5 $50,000 Goreville Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
6 $50,000 Goreville Building fires Significant
7 $20,000 Goreville Passenger vehicle fire Significant
8 $15,000 Goreville Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $10,000 Vienna Passenger vehicle fire Significant
10 $10,000 Vienna Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
06 How Johnson County compares

Johnson County vs IL vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

27.98
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Johnson County
27.98
IL avg
10.42
US avg
7.15
6.77
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Johnson County
6.77
IL avg
1.56
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Johnson County
0
IL avg
9.9
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Johnson County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 17087.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Johnson County

5 departments report from this county.

GOREVILLE VFD
—
FDID JF144 51 incidents 13 vol
VIENNA FD
Vienna
FDID JF154 31 incidents 1 paid 30 vol
CYPRESS VFD
—
FDID JF138 13 incidents 10 vol
BUNCOMBE VFD
buncombe
FDID JF124 2 incidents 16 vol
Belknap FD
—
FDID JF114 0 incidents 10 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.