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2025 County Report

Fires in Roseau County, MN

In 2025, fire departments serving Roseau County responded to 67 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $856K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Very High.

6,106 residents FIPS 27135 20 cities · 4 fire depts
Total incidents
67
377 across 5 years
Building fires
17
16 wildland
Property loss
$2.7M
$2.3M structure · $388K 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 67% of all calls.

67
Total Incidents
Building fires 17 25.4%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 8 11.9%
Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire 7 10.4%
Grass fire 7 10.4%
Passenger vehicle fire 6 9.0%
All other categories 22 32.8%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Roseau County?

May peaks. Mar dips.

Jan 6
Feb 7
Mar 0
Apr 12
May 13
Jun 9
Jul 5
Aug 3
Sep 7
Oct 3
Nov 0
Dec 2
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Roseau County

377 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 124
2022 57
2023 57
2024 72
2025 67
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 17 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
53%
16
Cause undetermined
17%
5
Intentional / arson
3%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
7%
2
Under investigation
17%
5
Act of nature (lightning)
3%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $2.3M in losses

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

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $856,170 Warroad Building fires Major
2 $500,000 City of Greenbush Building fires Major
3 $400,000 Roseau Building fires Major
4 $250,000 Wannaska Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Major
5 $100,000 Roseau Building fires Significant
6 $65,000 City of Greenbush Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
7 $40,000 Roseau Building fires Significant
8 $30,000 Roseau Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
9 $30,000 Roseau Building fires Significant
10 $25,000 Roseau Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
06 How Roseau County compares

Roseau County vs MN vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

10.97
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Roseau County
10.97
MN avg
7.36
US avg
7.15
2.78
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Roseau County
2.78
MN avg
1.08
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Roseau County
0
MN avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Roseau County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 27135.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Roseau County

4 departments report from this county.

ROSEAU FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 68103 38 incidents
WARROAD FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 68104 17 incidents
GREENBUSH FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 68102 11 incidents
BADGER FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 68105 2 incidents
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in MN

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Greenwood 2021 USFS 26,829
2 MNGLR-FY21-WF-Oxcart 2021 FWS 12,536
3 Palsburg 2015 FWS 4,456
4 Agassiz NWR Project RX 2024 FWS 4,208
5 MNSBR-FY19-RX-UNIT 4a 6 6a 2019 FWS 2,989
6 RL 005 UNIT 8 & 9 2021 BIA 2,937
7 4 Square Mile RX 2024 FWS 2,481
8 RL 029 2018 BIA 2,360
9 Unit 8E RX 2024 FWS 2,241
10 MNSBR-FY19-RX-UNIT 7 9 11 2019 FWS 2,193

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.