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2025 County Report

Fires in Racine County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Racine County responded to 1,298 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $500K property loss.

187,431 residents FIPS 55101 34 cities · 13 fire depts
Total incidents
1,298
6,431 across 5 years
Building fires
266
108 wildland
Property loss
$6.2M
$4.3M structure · $1.8M contents
Casualties
2 / 13
2 civ deaths · 7 civ inj · 6 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.

1,298
Total Incidents
Building fires 266 20.5%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 174 13.4%
Cooking fire, confined to container 104 8.0%
Carbon monoxide incident 86 6.6%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 71 5.5%
All other categories 597 46.0%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Racine County?

Nov peaks. Feb dips.

Jan 118
Feb 74
Mar 131
Apr 91
May 127
Jun 105
Jul 130
Aug 107
Sep 82
Oct 102
Nov 136
Dec 95
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Racine County

6,431 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 1,367
2022 1,215
2023 1,282
2024 1,269
2025 1,298
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 266 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
56%
164
Cause undetermined
14%
40
Intentional / arson
8%
23
Equipment / heat source failure
11%
32
Under investigation
7%
22
Act of nature (lightning)
4%
9
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $2.1M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Racine County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 49% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $500,000 Caledonia Building fires Major
2 $250,000 Village of Mount Ple Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Major
3 $250,000 Wind Lake Building fires Major
4 $250,000 Wind Lake Building fires Major
5 $200,000 Racine Building fires Significant
6 $179,800 Sturtevant Building fires Significant
7 $150,000 Franksville Building fires Significant
8 $125,000 Village of Mount Ple Building fires Significant
9 $100,000 Racine Building fires Significant
10 $100,000 Mount Pleasant Building fires Significant
06 How Racine County compares

Racine County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

6.93
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Racine County
6.93
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
1.42
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Racine County
1.42
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
10.7
Civilian fire deaths per million
Racine County
10.7
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Racine County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55101.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Racine County

13 departments report from this county.

Racine Fire Dept
Racine
FDID 51010 464 incidents
South Shore Consol FireEMS Dept
RACINE
FDID 51040 253 incidents 2 paid
Caledonia Fire Dept
Caledonia
FDID 51060 147 incidents
Kansasville Fire Dept
—
FDID 51100 87 incidents
Burlington City Fire Dept
—
FDID 51090 64 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.