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2025 County Report

Fires in Koochiching County, MN

In 2025, fire departments serving Koochiching County responded to 64 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $1.0M property loss.

7,436 residents FIPS 27071 33 cities · 6 fire depts
Total incidents
64
291 across 5 years
Building fires
12
17 wildland
Property loss
$1.9M
$1.2M structure · $645K 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 59% of all calls.

64
Total Incidents
Building fires 12 18.8%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 8 12.5%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 7 10.9%
Cooking fire, confined to container 6 9.4%
Grass fire 5 7.8%
All other categories 26 40.6%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Koochiching County?

May peaks. Feb dips.

Jan 5
Feb 3
Mar 3
Apr 6
May 13
Jun 4
Jul 5
Aug 3
Sep 4
Oct 10
Nov 3
Dec 5
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Koochiching County

291 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 68
2022 59
2023 48
2024 52
2025 64
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 12 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
52%
13
Cause undetermined
4%
1
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
16%
4
Under investigation
24%
6
Act of nature (lightning)
4%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.2M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Koochiching County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $1,000,000 Littlefork Building fires Major
2 $50,000 City of Northome Passenger vehicle fire Significant
3 $35,000 Littlefork Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
4 $30,000 Littlefork Building fires Significant
5 $30,000 Littlefork Building fires Significant
6 $25,000 Littlefork Building fires Significant
7 $15,000 International Falls Building fires Significant
8 $10,000 Loman Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
9 $10,000 International Falls Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire Significant
10 $5,000 International Falls Building fires Significant
06 How Koochiching County compares

Koochiching County vs MN vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

8.61
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Koochiching County
8.61
MN avg
7.36
US avg
7.15
1.61
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Koochiching County
1.61
MN avg
1.08
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Koochiching County
0
MN avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Koochiching County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 27071.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Koochiching County

6 departments report from this county.

INTERNATIONAL FALLS FD
—
FDID 36302 46 incidents
LITTLEFORK FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 36103 11 incidents
LOMAN FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 36104 3 incidents
BIRCHDALE FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 36107 1 incidents
NORTHOME FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 36105 0 incidents
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in MN

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Greenwood 2021 USFS 26,829
2 MNGLR-FY21-WF-Oxcart 2021 FWS 12,536
3 Palsburg 2015 FWS 4,456
4 Agassiz NWR Project RX 2024 FWS 4,208
5 MNSBR-FY19-RX-UNIT 4a 6 6a 2019 FWS 2,989
6 RL 005 UNIT 8 & 9 2021 BIA 2,937
7 4 Square Mile RX 2024 FWS 2,481
8 RL 029 2018 BIA 2,360
9 Unit 8E RX 2024 FWS 2,241
10 MNSBR-FY19-RX-UNIT 7 9 11 2019 FWS 2,193

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.