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2025 County Report

Fires in Waseca County, MN

In 2025, fire departments serving Waseca County responded to 41 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $1K property loss.

12,859 residents FIPS 27161 10 cities · 4 fire depts
Total incidents
41
321 across 5 years
Building fires
9
12 wildland
Property loss
$1K
$1K structure · $0 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 59% of all calls.

41
Total Incidents
Building fires 9 22.0%
Grass fire 5 12.2%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 4 9.8%
Forest, woods or wildland fire 3 7.3%
Outside storage fire 3 7.3%
All other categories 17 41.5%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Waseca County?

Apr peaks. Jun dips.

Jan 2
Feb 7
Mar 4
Apr 8
May 6
Jun 0
Jul 0
Aug 2
Sep 2
Oct 7
Nov 2
Dec 1
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Waseca County

321 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 91
2022 91
2023 75
2024 23
2025 41
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 9 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
73%
8
Cause undetermined
0%
0
Intentional / arson
9%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
18%
2
Under investigation
0%
0
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

5 fires · $1K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Waseca County during 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $1,000 City of Janesville Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
2 $1 Janesville Building fires Significant
3 $1 Janesville Building fires Significant
4 $1 Janesville Building fires Significant
5 $1 City of New Richland Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
06 How Waseca County compares

Waseca County vs MN vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

3.19
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Waseca County
3.19
MN avg
7.36
US avg
7.15
0.7
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Waseca County
0.7
MN avg
1.08
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Waseca County
0
MN avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Waseca County

10 cities mapped to FIPS 27161.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Waseca County

4 departments report from this county.

JANESVILLE FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 81101 21 incidents
WALDORF FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 81103 7 incidents
NEW RICHLAND FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 81102 5 incidents
WASECA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 81104 0 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.