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2025 County Report

Fires in Monroe County, WV

In 2025, fire departments serving Monroe County responded to 82 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $534K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

1,159 residents FIPS 54063 40 cities · 4 fire depts
Total incidents
82
591 across 5 years
Building fires
30
6 wildland
Property loss
$1.6M
$1.2M structure · $387K contents
Casualties
1 / 1
1 civ deaths · 1 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 65% of all calls.

82
Total Incidents
Building fires 30 36.6%
Aircraft standby 8 9.8%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 6 7.3%
Passenger vehicle fire 5 6.1%
Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire 4 4.9%
All other categories 29 35.4%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Monroe County?

Mar peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 11
Feb 10
Mar 26
Apr 5
May 13
Jun 13
Jul 1
Aug 3
Sep 0
Oct 0
Nov 0
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Monroe County

591 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 146
2022 144
2023 105
2024 114
2025 82
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 30 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
27%
7
Cause undetermined
15%
4
Intentional / arson
4%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
19%
5
Under investigation
8%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
27%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.1M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Monroe County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 96% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $534,000 LINDSIDE Building fires Major
2 $288,000 LINDSIDE Building fires Major
3 $125,000 Peterstown Building fires Significant
4 $81,000 LINDSIDE Building fires Significant
5 $25,000 LINDSIDE Passenger vehicle fire Significant
6 $25,000 Peterstown Passenger vehicle fire Significant
7 $18,000 Peterstown Building fires Significant
8 $17,000 LINDSIDE Building fires Significant
9 $12,000 Peterstown Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
10 $10,000 Peterstown Building fires Significant
06 How Monroe County compares

Monroe County vs WV vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

70.75
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Monroe County
70.75
WV avg
22.82
US avg
7.15
25.88
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Monroe County
25.88
WV avg
4.85
US avg
0.82
862.8
Civilian fire deaths per million
Monroe County
862.8
WV avg
41.5
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Monroe County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 54063.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Monroe County

4 departments report from this county.

LINDSIDE VFD
lindside
FDID 32102 21 incidents 22 vol
PETERSTOWN VFD
Peterstown
FDID 32103 18 incidents 28 vol
UNION COMMUNITY VFD
Union
FDID 32105 18 incidents 25 vol
BALLARD VFD
Ballard
FDID 32101 15 incidents 20 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in WV

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 GAULEY MTN 1991 NPS 12,324
2 Steep Valley 2023 NPS 2,182
3 Dry Hollow Fire 2019 USFS 1,288
4 ABRAHAM 2001 NPS 547
5 Castle 2018 USFS 427
6 Unnamed fire 1981 NPS 412
7 Highland 2024 NPS 231
8 North 2017 USFS 192
9 947 2023 USFS 165
10 873122 1987 NPS 162

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.