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2025 County Report

Fires in Richmond County, VA

In 2025, fire departments serving Richmond County responded to 61 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $300K property loss.

2,330 residents FIPS 51159 30 cities · 2 fire depts
Total incidents
61
227 across 5 years
Building fires
7
3 wildland
Property loss
$543K
$419K structure · $125K contents
Casualties
1 / 0
1 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Aircraft standby lead by count. Top five categories make up about 66% of all calls.

61
Total Incidents
Aircraft standby 19 31.1%
Building fires 7 11.5%
Arcing, shorted electrical equipment 7 11.5%
Power line down 4 6.6%
Cooking fire, confined to container 3 4.9%
All other categories 21 34.4%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Richmond County?

Nov peaks. Jan dips.

Jan 0
Feb 6
Mar 5
Apr 5
May 2
Jun 6
Jul 5
Aug 2
Sep 7
Oct 9
Nov 10
Dec 4
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Richmond County

227 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 25
2022 44
2023 45
2024 52
2025 61
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 7 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
20%
1
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
0%
0
Equipment / heat source failure
20%
1
Under investigation
60%
3
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

8 fires · $419K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Richmond County during 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $300,000 Warsaw Building fires Major
2 $75,000 WARSAW Fire, other Significant
3 $20,000 Warsaw Building fires Significant
4 $10,000 Warsaw Building fires Significant
5 $10,000 Warsaw Building fires Significant
6 $2,000 Farnham Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire Significant
7 $1,500 Warsaw Grass fire Significant
8 $100 Warsaw Trash or rubbish fire, contained Significant
06 How Richmond County compares

Richmond County vs VA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

26.18
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Richmond County
26.18
VA avg
8.68
US avg
7.15
3
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Richmond County
3
VA avg
0.84
US avg
0.82
429.2
Civilian fire deaths per million
Richmond County
429.2
VA avg
6.1
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Richmond County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 51159.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Richmond County

2 departments report from this county.

Richmond Fire Emerg Srvcs
Richmond
FDID 76000 3,102 incidents 438 paid
Richmond Co Vol Fire Dept
—
FDID 15901 54 incidents 50 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in VA

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 PINNACLES 2000 NPS 18,055
2 Mount Pleasant 2016 USFS 11,210
3 Waterfall Mountain 2024 USFS 6,398
4 Waites Run 2024 USFS 6,223
5 OLD RAG 2000 NPS 6,127
6 BIG RUN 1986 NPS 4,696
7 FULTZ RUN 2002 NPS 4,194
8 Shop Run 1999 NPS 3,229
9 Raven Rock 2016 USFS 2,401
10 Tye River 2018 USFS 2,057

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.