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2025 County Report

Fires in Monroe County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Monroe County responded to 221 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $250K property loss.

23,606 residents FIPS 55081 22 cities · 10 fire depts
Total incidents
221
1,338 across 5 years
Building fires
16
23 wildland
Property loss
$2.6M
$1.8M structure · $870K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.

221
Total Incidents
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 38 17.2%
Vehicle accident, general cleanup 37 16.7%
Carbon monoxide incident 30 13.6%
Building fires 16 7.2%
Grass fire 13 5.9%
All other categories 87 39.4%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Monroe County?

Mar peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 20
Feb 24
Mar 31
Apr 22
May 17
Jun 20
Jul 24
Aug 10
Sep 21
Oct 13
Nov 12
Dec 7
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Monroe County

1,338 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 262
2022 242
2023 325
2024 288
2025 221
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 16 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
75%
24
Cause undetermined
9%
3
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
6%
2
Under investigation
9%
3
Act of nature (lightning)
1%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.6M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Monroe County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 94% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $250,000 Sparta Building fires Major
2 $250,000 Sparta Building fires Major
3 $250,000 Sparta Building fires Major
4 $200,000 Sparta Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
5 $193,000 City of Tomah Fires in structures other than in a building Significant
6 $150,000 Sparta Building fires Significant
7 $150,000 City of Tomah Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
8 $85,000 Sparta Building fires Significant
9 $65,000 Sparta Building fires Significant
10 $50,000 Wilton Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Monroe County compares

Monroe County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

9.36
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Monroe County
9.36
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
0.68
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Monroe County
0.68
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Monroe County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Monroe County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55081.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Monroe County

10 departments report from this county.

Tomah Vol Fire Dept
Tomah
FDID 41080 108 incidents 31 vol
SPARTA AREA FIRE DIST
—
FDID 41130 82 incidents
Oakdale Area Fire Assoc
Oakdale
FDID 41050 18 incidents 52 paid 52 vol
Wilton Area Fire District
wilton
FDID 41110 6 incidents 25 vol
Norwalk Fire Dept
Norwalk
FDID 41040 3 incidents
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.