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2025 County Report

Fires in Lincoln County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Lincoln County responded to 135 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $250K property loss.

12,679 residents FIPS 55069 12 cities · 5 fire depts
Total incidents
135
876 across 5 years
Building fires
30
14 wildland
Property loss
$1.1M
$803K structure · $321K 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 62% of all calls.

135
Total Incidents
Building fires 30 22.2%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 19 14.1%
Power line down 18 13.3%
Carbon monoxide incident 9 6.7%
Passenger vehicle fire 8 5.9%
All other categories 51 37.8%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Lincoln County?

Mar peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 15
Feb 16
Mar 22
Apr 6
May 17
Jun 8
Jul 4
Aug 10
Sep 3
Oct 16
Nov 15
Dec 3
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Lincoln County

876 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 174
2022 194
2023 187
2024 186
2025 135
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
53%
26
Cause undetermined
12%
6
Intentional / arson
4%
2
Equipment / heat source failure
14%
7
Under investigation
4%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
13%
3
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $720K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Lincoln County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 90% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $250,000 Town of Bradley Building fires Major
2 $200,000 Town of Wilson Building fires Significant
3 $55,000 Merrill Fire in portable building, fixed location Significant
4 $50,000 Tomahawk Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other Significant
5 $45,000 Little Rice Building fires Significant
6 $30,000 Merrill Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire Significant
7 $25,000 Merrill Building fires Significant
8 $25,000 Town of Wilson Building fires Significant
9 $20,000 Merrill Building fires Significant
10 $20,000 Merrill Building fires Significant
06 How Lincoln County compares

Lincoln County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

10.65
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Lincoln County
10.65
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
2.37
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Lincoln County
2.37
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Lincoln County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Lincoln County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55069.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Lincoln County

5 departments report from this county.

Merrill Fire Dept
Merrill
FDID 35020 63 incidents
Russell Twp Fire Dept
Gleason
FDID 35010 27 incidents 22 vol
Pine River VOL Fire Dept
—
FDID 35050 11 incidents
Tomahawk Vol Fire Dept
Tomahawk
FDID 35030 8 incidents
Corning Vol Fire Dept
Merrill
FDID 35040 0 incidents 35 vol
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.