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2025 County Report

Fires in Roanoke County, VA

In 2025, fire departments serving Roanoke County responded to 591 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $350K property loss.

51,376 residents FIPS 51161 21 cities · 13 fire depts
Total incidents
591
1,716 across 5 years
Building fires
60
55 wildland
Property loss
$2.6M
$1.7M structure · $864K contents
Casualties
2 / 0
2 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Power line down lead by count. Top five categories make up about 71% of all calls.

591
Total Incidents
Power line down 243 41.1%
Building fires 60 10.2%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 49 8.3%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 40 6.8%
Unauthorized burning 25 4.2%
All other categories 174 29.4%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Roanoke County?

Feb peaks. Oct dips.

Jan 47
Feb 144
Mar 65
Apr 31
May 39
Jun 36
Jul 45
Aug 33
Sep 32
Oct 28
Nov 52
Dec 39
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Roanoke County

1,716 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 272
2022 319
2023 234
2024 300
2025 591
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 60 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
68%
38
Cause undetermined
9%
5
Intentional / arson
2%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
7%
4
Under investigation
12%
7
Act of nature (lightning)
2%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.6M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Roanoke County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 89% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $350,000 ROANOKE Building fires Major
2 $300,000 ROANOKE Building fires Major
3 $200,000 ROANOKE Building fires Significant
4 $150,000 VINTON Building fires Significant
5 $100,000 ROANOKE Building fires Significant
6 $100,000 ROANOKE Building fires Significant
7 $100,000 ROANOKE Building fires Significant
8 $100,000 Roanoke Building fires Significant
9 $80,000 Vinton Building fires Significant
10 $75,000 Vinton Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Roanoke County compares

Roanoke County vs VA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

11.5
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Roanoke County
11.5
VA avg
8.68
US avg
7.15
1.17
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Roanoke County
1.17
VA avg
0.84
US avg
0.82
38.9
Civilian fire deaths per million
Roanoke County
38.9
VA avg
6.1
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Roanoke County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 51161.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Roanoke County

13 departments report from this county.

Roanoke Co Fire Rescue
Roanoke
FDID 16100 877 incidents
Deep Creek Vol Fire Dept
—
FDID 14505 0 incidents
Vinton Vol Fire Dept
—
FDID 16102 0 incidents 4 paid 40 vol
Cave Spring Fire Dept
—
FDID 16103 0 incidents 67 vol
Catawba Fire Co
—
FDID 16104 0 incidents 18 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.