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2025 County Report

Fires in Outagamie County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Outagamie County responded to 1,245 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $500K property loss.

135,027 residents FIPS 55087 25 cities · 22 fire depts
Total incidents
1,245
6,686 across 5 years
Building fires
148
45 wildland
Property loss
$4.4M
$3.2M structure · $1.2M contents
Casualties
0 / 9
0 civ deaths · 7 civ inj · 2 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Top five categories make up about 51% of all calls.

1,245
Total Incidents
Vehicle accident, general cleanup 155 12.4%
Building fires 148 11.9%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 126 10.1%
Unauthorized burning 107 8.6%
Power line down 101 8.1%
All other categories 608 48.8%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Outagamie County?

May peaks. Feb dips.

Jan 116
Feb 71
Mar 128
Apr 99
May 132
Jun 119
Jul 102
Aug 103
Sep 85
Oct 108
Nov 99
Dec 83
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Outagamie County

6,686 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 1,285
2022 1,419
2023 1,258
2024 1,479
2025 1,245
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 148 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
60%
109
Cause undetermined
15%
28
Intentional / arson
4%
8
Equipment / heat source failure
12%
21
Under investigation
7%
12
Act of nature (lightning)
2%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $2.0M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Outagamie County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 64% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $500,000 Seymour Building fires Major
2 $300,000 Cicero Building fires Major
3 $248,600 Town of Grand Chute Building fires Significant
4 $179,000 Appleton Building fires Significant
5 $175,000 Town of Grand Chute Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other Significant
6 $150,000 Hortonville Building fires Significant
7 $135,000 City of Kaukauna Building fires Significant
8 $125,000 Village of Hortonvil Building fires Significant
9 $107,400 Appleton Building fires Significant
10 $100,000 Appleton Building fires Significant
06 How Outagamie County compares

Outagamie County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

9.22
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Outagamie County
9.22
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
1.1
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Outagamie County
1.1
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Outagamie County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Outagamie County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55087.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Outagamie County

22 departments report from this county.

APPLETON FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 44020 412 incidents
Grand Chute Fire Dept
—
FDID 44040 172 incidents
Little Chute Fire Dept
LITTLE CHUTE
FDID 44050 102 incidents 46 vol
Greenville Fire EMS
—
FDID 44070 93 incidents
KAUKAUNA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 44240 67 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.