In 2025, fire departments serving Milwaukee County responded to 6,456 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $14.6M property loss.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories make up about 56% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Feb dips.
28,557 incidents from 2021 through 2025.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3,220 | |
| 2022 | 6,416 | |
| 2023 | 6,312 | |
| 2024 | 6,153 | |
| 2025 | 6,456 |
For the 886 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Largest single-incident property losses in Milwaukee County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 52% of the county's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $14,571,284 | MILWAUKEE | Building fires | Catastrophic |
| 2 | $7,600,000 | MILWAUKEE | Building fires | Catastrophic |
| 3 | $3,732,641 | MILWAUKEE | Building fires | Major |
| 4 | $2,114,595 | MILWAUKEE | Building fires | Major |
| 5 | $1,697,388 | MILWAUKEE | Building fires | Major |
| 6 | $1,165,714 | MILWAUKEE | Building fires | Major |
| 7 | $1,160,769 | MILWAUKEE | Building fires | Major |
| 8 | $965,910 | MILWAUKEE | Building fires | Major |
| 9 | $964,377 | MILWAUKEE | Building fires | Major |
| 10 | $863,245 | MILWAUKEE | Building fires | Major |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.
12 cities mapped to FIPS 55079.
| City | Population | |
|---|---|---|
| Milwaukee | 573,299 | View › |
| West Allis | 59,907 | View › |
| Wauwatosa | 47,919 | View › |
| Greenfield | 37,521 | View › |
| Franklin | 36,513 | View › |
| Oak Creek | 36,286 | View › |
| South Milwaukee | 20,678 | View › |
| Cudahy | 18,087 | View › |
| Whitefish Bay | 14,804 | View › |
| Greendale | 14,722 | View › |
| Shorewood | 13,707 | View › |
| Glendale | 13,227 | View › |
14 departments report from this county.
Top 10 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).
| # | Name | Year | Agency | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
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.