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2025 County Report

Fires in Rockingham County, VA

In 2025, fire departments serving Rockingham County responded to 366 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $285K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

34,146 residents FIPS 51165 72 cities · 11 fire depts
Total incidents
366
2,766 across 5 years
Building fires
75
35 wildland
Property loss
$1.9M
$1.5M structure · $392K contents
Casualties
1 / 7
1 civ deaths · 3 civ inj · 4 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 50% of all calls.

366
Total Incidents
Building fires 75 20.5%
Power line down 44 12.0%
Unauthorized burning 26 7.1%
Vehicle accident, general cleanup 20 5.5%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 18 4.9%
All other categories 183 50.0%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Rockingham County?

Mar peaks. May dips.

Jan 71
Feb 7
Mar 76
Apr 34
May 0
Jun 0
Jul 61
Aug 2
Sep 38
Oct 72
Nov 4
Dec 1
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Rockingham County

2,766 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 492
2022 613
2023 666
2024 629
2025 366
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 75 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
52%
43
Cause undetermined
11%
9
Intentional / arson
2%
2
Equipment / heat source failure
13%
11
Under investigation
15%
12
Act of nature (lightning)
7%
3
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.1M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Rockingham County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 71% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $285,000 Harriston Census Des Building fires Major
2 $130,000 Grottoes Building fires Significant
3 $100,000 Linville Building fires Significant
4 $87,400 Hinton Building fires Significant
5 $84,700 Hinton Building fires Significant
6 $77,300 Broadway Building fires Significant
7 $77,300 Broadway Building fires Significant
8 $75,000 Rockingham Building fires Significant
9 $69,200 Hinton Building fires Significant
10 $68,500 Broadway Building fires Significant
06 How Rockingham County compares

Rockingham County vs VA vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

10.72
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Rockingham County
10.72
VA avg
8.68
US avg
7.15
2.2
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Rockingham County
2.2
VA avg
0.84
US avg
0.82
29.3
Civilian fire deaths per million
Rockingham County
29.3
VA avg
6.1
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Rockingham County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 51165.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Rockingham County

11 departments report from this county.

Rockingham Co Fire Rescue
Harrisonburg
FDID 16500 149 incidents 40 paid 750 vol
Broadway Vol Fire Dept
—
FDID 16505 39 incidents 69 vol
Hose Co No 4
Harrisonburg
FDID 16544 36 incidents
Elkton Vol Fire Co
Elkton
FDID 16503 35 incidents 29 paid 759 vol
Bridgewater Vol Fire Co
Bridgewater
FDID 16515 33 incidents 29 paid 759 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.