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2025 County Report

Fires in Richmond County, NC

In 2025, fire departments serving Richmond County responded to 111 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $45K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

22,870 residents FIPS 37153 33 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
111
1,084 across 5 years
Building fires
11
22 wildland
Property loss
$191K
$161K structure · $30K contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 51% of all calls.

111
Total Incidents
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire 15 13.5%
Outside rubbish fire, other 12 10.8%
Building fires 11 9.9%
Power line down 10 9.0%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 9 8.1%
All other categories 54 48.6%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Richmond County?

Mar peaks. Aug dips.

Jan 12
Feb 19
Mar 30
Apr 13
May 14
Jun 14
Jul 7
Aug 0
Sep 0
Oct 2
Nov 0
Dec 0
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Richmond County

1,084 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 159
2022 299
2023 274
2024 241
2025 111
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
22%
10
Cause undetermined
42%
19
Intentional / arson
22%
10
Equipment / heat source failure
2%
1
Under investigation
4%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
8%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $156K in losses

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

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $45,000 ROCKINGHAM Building fires Significant
2 $40,000 ROCKINGHAM Building fires Significant
3 $40,000 ROCKINGHAM Building fires Significant
4 $7,000 ROCKINGHAM Building fires Significant
5 $6,000 Rockingham Building fires Significant
6 $5,000 Rockingham Building fires Significant
7 $5,000 ROCKINGHAM Building fires Significant
8 $4,000 ROCKINGHAM Building fires Significant
9 $2,000 Rockingham Passenger vehicle fire Significant
10 $2,000 ROCKINGHAM Building fires Significant
06 How Richmond County compares

Richmond County vs NC vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

4.85
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Richmond County
4.85
NC avg
9.36
US avg
7.15
0.48
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Richmond County
0.48
NC avg
1.35
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Richmond County
0
NC avg
8.6
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Richmond County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 37153.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Richmond County

1 departments report from this county.

East Rockingham VFD
ROCKINGHAM
FDID 07704 0 incidents 30 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in NC

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 GREAT LAKES 2023 USFS 32,155
2 Whipping Creek Road 2016 PRI 15,456
3 COLLETT RIDGE 2023 USFS 5,506
4 St Mary's 2008 NPS 4,565
5 Carolina Bay 2009 USFS 2,659
6 Big Ditch 2021 FWS 1,486
7 HANCOCK CREEK 2022 USFS 1,177
8 BUCK MTN 2002 NPS 1,124
9 NCMCR-FY19-RX-1.1.2.b 2019 FWS 1,080
10 VAF220152 2022 NPS 1,079

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.