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2025 County Report

Fires in Oconto County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Oconto County responded to 310 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $400K property loss.

11,026 residents FIPS 55083 30 cities · 18 fire depts
Total incidents
310
1,576 across 5 years
Building fires
82
62 wildland
Property loss
$5.8M
$3.8M structure · $2.1M contents
Casualties
0 / 5
0 civ deaths · 3 civ inj · 2 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 54% of all calls.

310
Total Incidents
Building fires 82 26.5%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 26 8.4%
Power line down 23 7.4%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 21 6.8%
Grass fire 15 4.8%
All other categories 143 46.1%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Oconto County?

Mar peaks. Jun dips.

Jan 44
Feb 23
Mar 48
Apr 46
May 25
Jun 12
Jul 20
Aug 14
Sep 13
Oct 18
Nov 30
Dec 17
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Oconto County

1,576 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 345
2022 286
2023 302
2024 333
2025 310
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 82 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
48%
34
Cause undetermined
27%
19
Intentional / arson
3%
2
Equipment / heat source failure
8%
6
Under investigation
10%
7
Act of nature (lightning)
4%
3
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $2.5M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Oconto County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 68% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $400,000 Oconto Building fires Major
2 $350,000 Oconto Building fires Major
3 $325,000 Oconto Falls Building fires Major
4 $300,000 Oconto Building fires Major
5 $300,000 Oconto Building fires Major
6 $200,000 Townsend Building fires Significant
7 $200,000 Gillett Building fires Significant
8 $166,300 Oconto Building fires Significant
9 $150,000 Oconto Falls Building fires Significant
10 $150,000 Suring Building fires Significant
06 How Oconto County compares

Oconto County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

28.12
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Oconto County
28.12
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
7.44
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Oconto County
7.44
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Oconto County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Oconto County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55083.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Oconto County

18 departments report from this county.

Oconto Falls Vol Fire Dept
Oconto Falls
FDID 42010 62 incidents 30 vol
Oconto Fire Department
Oconto
FDID 42080 36 incidents 8 paid
Gillett City Vol Fire Dept
Gillett
FDID 42030 33 incidents
Suring Vol Fire Dept
Suring
FDID 42090 32 incidents
Little Suamico Fire Dept
Sobieski
FDID 42060 31 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.