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2025 County Report

Fires in Kenosha County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Kenosha County responded to 1,392 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $1.0M property loss.

160,423 residents FIPS 55059 20 cities · 9 fire depts
Total incidents
1,392
6,329 across 5 years
Building fires
260
80 wildland
Property loss
$9.2M
$7.3M structure · $1.9M contents
Casualties
3 / 8
3 civ deaths · 6 civ inj · 2 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.

1,392
Total Incidents
Building fires 260 18.7%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 208 14.9%
Unauthorized burning 169 12.1%
Carbon monoxide incident 92 6.6%
Passenger vehicle fire 79 5.7%
All other categories 584 42.0%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Kenosha County?

Nov peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 88
Feb 104
Mar 126
Apr 122
May 132
Jun 140
Jul 124
Aug 129
Sep 94
Oct 105
Nov 142
Dec 86
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Kenosha County

6,329 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 1,295
2022 1,169
2023 1,191
2024 1,282
2025 1,392
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 260 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
51%
150
Cause undetermined
15%
44
Intentional / arson
3%
9
Equipment / heat source failure
8%
25
Under investigation
20%
60
Act of nature (lightning)
3%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $4.4M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Kenosha County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 60% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $1,000,000 Kenosha Building fires Major
2 $600,000 Pleasant Prairie Fire, other Major
3 $500,000 Somers Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire Major
4 $375,000 Pleasant Prairie Building fires Major
5 $350,000 Kenosha Building fires Major
6 $350,000 Somers Building fires Major
7 $350,000 Powers Lake Building fires Major
8 $300,000 Twin Lakes Building fires Major
9 $300,000 Silver Lake Building fires Major
10 $280,000 Silver Lake Building fires Major
06 How Kenosha County compares

Kenosha County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

8.68
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Kenosha County
8.68
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
1.62
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Kenosha County
1.62
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
18.7
Civilian fire deaths per million
Kenosha County
18.7
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Kenosha County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55059.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Kenosha County

9 departments report from this county.

Kenosha Fire Dept
Kenosha
FDID 30020 594 incidents 141 paid
Pleasant Prairie Fire Rescue
—
FDID 30040 175 incidents
Salem Lakes FireRescue
salem
FDID 30060 166 incidents
Somers Fire Dept
Somers
FDID 30100 157 incidents 43 paid 126 vol
Bristol Fire Department
Bristol
FDID 30030 147 incidents 1 paid
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.