Home› Counties› VA› Madison County
2025 County Report

Fires in Madison County, VA

In 2025, fire departments serving Madison County responded to 108 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $150K property loss.

2,158 residents FIPS 51113 36 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
108
349 across 5 years
Building fires
8
28 wildland
Property loss
$391K
$373K structure · $18K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.

108
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 23 21.3%
Aircraft standby 15 13.9%
Authorized controlled burning 14 13.0%
Passenger vehicle fire 12 11.1%
Building fires 8 7.4%
All other categories 36 33.3%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Madison County?

Mar peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 4
Feb 15
Mar 19
Apr 12
May 8
Jun 4
Jul 5
Aug 7
Sep 8
Oct 7
Nov 19
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Madison County

349 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 100
2022 99
2023 31
2024 11
2025 108
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 8 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
95%
21
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
0%
0
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
5%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $338K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Madison County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 91% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $150,000 Syria Building fires Significant
2 $50,000 Madison Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle Significant
3 $25,000 Brightwood Building fires Significant
4 $25,000 Etlan Passenger vehicle fire Significant
5 $20,000 Madison Passenger vehicle fire Significant
6 $20,000 Pratts Building fires Significant
7 $18,000 Madison Passenger vehicle fire Significant
8 $10,000 Rochelle Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $10,000 Aroda Passenger vehicle fire Significant
10 $10,000 County Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Madison County compares

Madison County vs VA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

50.05
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Madison County
50.05
VA avg
8.68
US avg
7.15
3.71
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Madison County
3.71
VA avg
0.84
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Madison County
0
VA avg
6.1
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Madison County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 51113.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Madison County

1 departments report from this county.

Madison Co Vol Fire Dept
—
FDID 11301 147 incidents 4 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in VA

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 PINNACLES 2000 NPS 18,055
2 Mount Pleasant 2016 USFS 11,210
3 Waterfall Mountain 2024 USFS 6,398
4 Waites Run 2024 USFS 6,223
5 OLD RAG 2000 NPS 6,127
6 BIG RUN 1986 NPS 4,696
7 FULTZ RUN 2002 NPS 4,194
8 Shop Run 1999 NPS 3,229
9 Raven Rock 2016 USFS 2,401
10 Tye River 2018 USFS 2,057

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.