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2025 County Report

Fires in Mathews County, VA

In 2025, fire departments serving Mathews County responded to 86 fire and hazmat incidents. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

1,733 residents FIPS 51115 36 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
86
192 across 5 years
Building fires
4
15 wildland
Property loss
$0
$0 structure · $0 contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Power line down lead by count. Top five categories make up about 71% of all calls.

86
Total Incidents
Power line down 20 23.3%
Aircraft standby 20 23.3%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 13 15.1%
Building fires 4 4.7%
Arcing, shorted electrical equipment 4 4.7%
All other categories 25 29.1%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Mathews County?

Mar peaks. Nov dips.

Jan 8
Feb 4
Mar 18
Apr 5
May 6
Jun 10
Jul 6
Aug 6
Sep 8
Oct 8
Nov 1
Dec 6
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Mathews County

192 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 0
2022 44
2023 12
2024 50
2025 86
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 4 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
60%
6
Cause undetermined
20%
2
Intentional / arson
10%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
0%
0
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
10%
1
06 How Mathews County compares

Mathews County vs VA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

49.62
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Mathews County
49.62
VA avg
8.68
US avg
7.15
2.31
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Mathews County
2.31
VA avg
0.84
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Mathews County
0
VA avg
6.1
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Mathews County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 51115.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Mathews County

1 departments report from this county.

Mathews Vol Fire Dept Inc
MATHEWS
FDID 11501 101 incidents 84 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.