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2025 County Report

Fires in Sawyer County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Sawyer County responded to 157 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $600K property loss.

5,623 residents FIPS 55113 22 cities · 12 fire depts
Total incidents
157
851 across 5 years
Building fires
49
18 wildland
Property loss
$1.7M
$1.2M structure · $489K 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 64% of all calls.

157
Total Incidents
Building fires 49 31.2%
Power line down 23 14.6%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 13 8.3%
Fire, other 8 5.1%
Forest, woods or wildland fire 7 4.5%
All other categories 57 36.3%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Sawyer County?

Feb peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 17
Feb 23
Mar 12
Apr 15
May 12
Jun 13
Jul 14
Aug 14
Sep 8
Oct 9
Nov 10
Dec 10
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Sawyer County

851 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 147
2022 195
2023 154
2024 198
2025 157
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 49 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
54%
19
Cause undetermined
9%
3
Intentional / arson
6%
2
Equipment / heat source failure
14%
5
Under investigation
17%
6
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.2M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Sawyer County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $600,000 Exeland Building fires Major
2 $300,000 winter Building fires Major
3 $230,000 Spider Lake Twp Building fires Significant
4 $25,000 Exeland Fires in structures other than in a building Significant
5 $10,000 Hunter Twp Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
6 $10,000 Hayward Building fires Significant
7 $5,000 Exeland Building fires Significant
8 $5,000 winter Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue Significant
9 $5,000 winter Fires in structures other than in a building Significant
10 $3,850 RADISSON Outside stationary compactor/compacted trash fire Significant
06 How Sawyer County compares

Sawyer County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

27.92
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Sawyer County
27.92
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
8.71
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Sawyer County
8.71
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Sawyer County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Sawyer County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55113.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Sawyer County

12 departments report from this county.

Hayward TWP fire Dept
Hayward
FDID 57050 40 incidents
Stone Lake Vol Fire Dept
Stone Lake
FDID 57070 27 incidents
Bass Lake Vol Fire Dept
Hayward
FDID 57020 24 incidents
Hayward City Vol Fire Dept
Hayward
FDID 57040 24 incidents
Round Lake TWP Fire Dept
Hayward
FDID 57110 22 incidents
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in WI

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Necedah WL unit 23B RX 2024 FWS 853
2 WIHRR-FY19-RX-Cattail Desert North 2019 FWS 536
3 Peters WF 2014 FWS 363
4 WINCR-FY19-RX-Triangle Complex 2019 FWS 355
5 WISCR-FY19-RX-10 Mile 2019 FWS 352
6 WINCR-FY19-RX-PR19-20 2019 FWS 349
7 WINCR-FY19-RX-PR28 2019 FWS 293
8 WINCR-FY21-WF-Railroad 2 2021 OTH 267
9 WISCR-FY19-RX-Erickson 2019 FWS 249
10 WIHRR-FY19-RX-Collien's Ditch South 2019 FWS 224

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.