Home› Counties› WI› Richland County
2025 County Report

Fires in Richland County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Richland County responded to 107 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $150K property loss.

6,876 residents FIPS 55103 34 cities · 4 fire depts
Total incidents
107
428 across 5 years
Building fires
24
36 wildland
Property loss
$1.4M
$409K structure · $957K 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 68% of all calls.

107
Total Incidents
Building fires 24 22.4%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 19 17.8%
Grass fire 14 13.1%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 9 8.4%
Passenger vehicle fire 7 6.5%
All other categories 34 31.8%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Richland County?

Apr peaks. May dips.

Jan 15
Feb 11
Mar 14
Apr 16
May 3
Jun 8
Jul 7
Aug 12
Sep 5
Oct 6
Nov 6
Dec 4
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Richland County

428 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 68
2022 70
2023 70
2024 113
2025 107
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 24 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
60%
24
Cause undetermined
2%
1
Intentional / arson
10%
4
Equipment / heat source failure
15%
6
Under investigation
10%
4
Act of nature (lightning)
3%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $403K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Richland County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 98% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $150,000 Cazenovia Building fires Significant
2 $100,000 Richland Center Building fires Significant
3 $75,000 Hillpoint Building fires Significant
4 $50,000 Richland Center Building fires Significant
5 $6,000 Cazenovia Passenger vehicle fire Significant
6 $5,500 Cazenovia Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
7 $5,000 Orion Building fires Significant
8 $5,000 Richland Center Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire Significant
9 $3,000 Richland Center Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other Significant
10 $3,000 Richland Center Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Richland County compares

Richland County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

15.56
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Richland County
15.56
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
3.49
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Richland County
3.49
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Richland County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Richland County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55103.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Richland County

4 departments report from this county.

Richland Center Fire Dept
Richland Center
FDID 52010 75 incidents
Cazenovia Area Fire Dept
Cazenovia
FDID 52040 13 incidents 27 vol
Yuba Vol Fire Dept
Yuba
FDID 52030 11 incidents 22 vol
Lone Rock Fire Dept
Lone Rock
FDID 52020 0 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.