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2025 County Report

Fires in Oneida County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Oneida County responded to 338 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $300K property loss.

9,909 residents FIPS 55085 25 cities · 17 fire depts
Total incidents
338
1,450 across 5 years
Building fires
70
41 wildland
Property loss
$419K
$367K structure · $52K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 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.

338
Total Incidents
Building fires 70 20.7%
Power line down 69 20.4%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 33 9.8%
Carbon monoxide incident 30 8.9%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 18 5.3%
All other categories 118 34.9%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Oneida County?

Mar peaks. Nov dips.

Jan 17
Feb 36
Mar 65
Apr 22
May 38
Jun 24
Jul 44
Aug 20
Sep 19
Oct 22
Nov 15
Dec 16
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Oneida County

1,450 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 267
2022 328
2023 237
2024 280
2025 338
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 70 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
57%
28
Cause undetermined
22%
11
Intentional / arson
2%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
8%
4
Under investigation
8%
4
Act of nature (lightning)
3%
1
05 The biggest fires

9 fires · $367K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Oneida County during 2025. These 9 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $300,000 minocqua Building fires Major
2 $40,000 Rhinelander Building fires Significant
3 $10,000 Harshaw Passenger vehicle fire Significant
4 $8,000 Rhinelander Passenger vehicle fire Significant
5 $7,500 Sugar Camp Passenger vehicle fire Significant
6 $1,000 Woodboro Building fires Significant
7 $500 Woodruff Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
8 $350 Rhinelander Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $1 Rhinelander Forest, woods or wildland fire Significant
06 How Oneida County compares

Oneida County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

34.11
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Oneida County
34.11
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
7.06
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Oneida County
7.06
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Oneida County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Oneida County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55085.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Oneida County

17 departments report from this county.

RHINELANDER FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 43010 67 incidents
Minocqua Fire Dept
Minocqua
FDID 43090 49 incidents 38 vol
Three Lakes Vol Fire Dept
Three Lakes
FDID 43150 34 incidents
WOODRUFF VOL FIRE DEPT
Woodruff
FDID 43170 33 incidents 22 vol
Cassian Vol Fire Dept
harshaw
FDID 43030 24 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.