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2025 County Report

Fires in Shawano County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Shawano County responded to 215 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $200K property loss.

16,845 residents FIPS 55115 41 cities · 14 fire depts
Total incidents
215
1,074 across 5 years
Building fires
48
26 wildland
Property loss
$1.6M
$1.2M structure · $446K contents
Casualties
0 / 1
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 1 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.

215
Total Incidents
Building fires 48 22.3%
Power line down 29 13.5%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 27 12.6%
Passenger vehicle fire 14 6.5%
Grass fire 14 6.5%
All other categories 83 38.6%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Shawano County?

May peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 19
Feb 18
Mar 30
Apr 28
May 33
Jun 16
Jul 14
Aug 16
Sep 5
Oct 17
Nov 14
Dec 5
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Shawano County

1,074 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 173
2022 200
2023 251
2024 235
2025 215
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 48 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
58%
32
Cause undetermined
16%
9
Intentional / arson
2%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
11%
6
Under investigation
9%
5
Act of nature (lightning)
4%
2
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.0M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Shawano County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 87% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $200,000 Tigerton Building fires Significant
2 $200,000 Wittenberg Fire, other Significant
3 $175,000 Gresham Building fires Significant
4 $100,000 Tigerton Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
5 $90,000 Shawano Building fires Significant
6 $80,000 Shawano Building fires Significant
7 $45,000 Gresham Grass fire Significant
8 $45,000 Shawano Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $40,000 Tigerton Building fires Significant
10 $40,000 Bowler Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Shawano County compares

Shawano County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

12.76
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Shawano County
12.76
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
2.85
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Shawano County
2.85
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Shawano County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Shawano County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55115.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Shawano County

14 departments report from this county.

Shawano Fire Dept
Shawano
FDID 58100 54 incidents
Birnamwood Area Fire Dept
Birnamwood
FDID 58010 31 incidents
CecilWashington TWP Fire Dept
Cecil
FDID 58040 24 incidents
Green Valley Morgan Fire Co INC
Green Valley
FDID 58080 21 incidents
Bonduel Area Fire Dept
Bonduel
FDID 58060 19 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.