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2025 County Report

Fires in Marion County, OR

In 2025, fire departments serving Marion County responded to 2,048 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $1.7M property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

326,100 residents FIPS 41047 66 cities · 0 fire depts
Total incidents
2,048
10,068 across 5 years
Building fires
283
472 wildland
Property loss
$18.9M
$14.5M structure · $4.4M contents
Casualties
2 / 13
2 civ deaths · 9 civ inj · 4 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 54% of all calls.

2,048
Total Incidents
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 300 14.6%
Building fires 283 13.8%
Unauthorized burning 219 10.7%
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire 200 9.8%
Grass fire 108 5.3%
All other categories 938 45.8%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Marion County?

Jul peaks. Mar dips.

Jan 152
Feb 118
Mar 88
Apr 126
May 163
Jun 253
Jul 354
Aug 234
Sep 163
Oct 153
Nov 121
Dec 123
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Marion County

10,068 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 2,426
2022 1,927
2023 1,926
2024 1,741
2025 2,048
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 283 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
46%
472
Cause undetermined
32%
327
Intentional / arson
10%
105
Equipment / heat source failure
5%
53
Under investigation
2%
19
Act of nature (lightning)
5%
5
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $6.3M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Marion County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 44% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $1,700,000 Salem Building fires Major
2 $1,038,130 Salem Building fires Major
3 $600,000 Scotts Mills Building fires Major
4 $569,456 Salem Building fires Major
5 $446,000 Keizer Building fires Major
6 $406,932 West Salem Building fires Major
7 $400,000 Salem Building fires Major
8 $400,000 Salem Building fires Major
9 $392,423 Salem Building fires Major
10 $375,000 Salem Building fires Major
06 How Marion County compares

Marion County vs OR vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

6.28
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Marion County
6.28
OR avg
8.47
US avg
7.15
0.87
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Marion County
0.87
OR avg
0.83
US avg
0.82
6.1
Civilian fire deaths per million
Marion County
6.1
OR avg
3.8
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Marion County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 41047.

09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in OR

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Bootleg 2021 USFS 413,715
2 Saddle Draw 2014 BLM 280,310
3 LIONSHEAD 2020 BIA 198,346
4 Beachie Creek 2020 USFS 193,565
5 Chetco Bar 2017 BLM 190,524
6 Monkey Creek 2024 BLM 178,541
7 RAIL RIDGE 2024 BLM 176,660
8 Double Creek 2022 USFS 175,937
9 Klondike 2018 BLM 173,614
10 Holiday Farm 2020 USFS 173,392

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.