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2025 County Report

Fires in Pike County, IN

In 2025, fire departments serving Pike County responded to 66 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $200K property loss.

4,136 residents FIPS 18125 32 cities · 0 fire depts
Total incidents
66
403 across 5 years
Building fires
11
15 wildland
Property loss
$769K
$670K structure · $99K 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 61% of all calls.

66
Total Incidents
Building fires 11 16.7%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 11 16.7%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 10 15.2%
Passenger vehicle fire 4 6.1%
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire 4 6.1%
All other categories 26 39.4%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Pike County?

Mar peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 7
Feb 7
Mar 12
Apr 9
May 7
Jun 2
Jul 3
Aug 5
Sep 0
Oct 0
Nov 12
Dec 2
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Pike County

403 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 93
2022 86
2023 68
2024 90
2025 66
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 11 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
55%
11
Cause undetermined
5%
1
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
25%
5
Under investigation
10%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
5%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $649K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Pike County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 97% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $200,000 Otwell Outside equipment fire Significant
2 $200,000 Otwell Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
3 $90,000 City of Petersburg Building fires Significant
4 $55,000 Otwell Passenger vehicle fire Significant
5 $50,000 Velpen Building fires Significant
6 $15,000 Otwell Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
7 $10,000 Winslow Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
8 $10,000 City of Petersburg Outside equipment fire Significant
9 $10,000 City of Petersburg Building fires Significant
10 $9,000 City of Petersburg Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Pike County compares

Pike County vs IN vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

15.96
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Pike County
15.96
IN avg
8.61
US avg
7.15
2.66
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Pike County
2.66
IN avg
1.26
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Pike County
0
IN avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Pike County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 18125.

09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in IN

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

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.