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2025 County Report

Fires in Washburn County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Washburn County responded to 215 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $600K property loss.

5,021 residents FIPS 55129 15 cities · 5 fire depts
Total incidents
215
809 across 5 years
Building fires
42
20 wildland
Property loss
$2.7M
$1.4M structure · $1.3M contents
Casualties
0 / 0
0 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Power line down lead by count. Top five categories make up about 60% of all calls.

215
Total Incidents
Power line down 43 20.0%
Building fires 42 19.5%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 22 10.2%
Carbon monoxide incident 13 6.0%
Passenger vehicle fire 10 4.7%
All other categories 85 39.5%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Washburn County?

Nov peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 15
Feb 9
Mar 14
Apr 25
May 23
Jun 22
Jul 27
Aug 16
Sep 6
Oct 14
Nov 28
Dec 16
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Washburn County

809 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 133
2022 118
2023 167
2024 176
2025 215
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 42 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
61%
31
Cause undetermined
14%
7
Intentional / arson
2%
1
Equipment / heat source failure
18%
9
Under investigation
4%
2
Act of nature (lightning)
1%
1
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.3M in losses

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

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $600,000 Stone Lake Fire, other Major
2 $400,000 Minong Building fires Major
3 $150,000 Stone Lake Fire, other Significant
4 $100,000 Spooner Building fires Significant
5 $20,000 Shell Lake Building fires Significant
6 $20,000 Shell Lake Fire, other Significant
7 $15,000 Shell Lake Passenger vehicle fire Significant
8 $10,000 MINONG Building fires Significant
9 $10,000 Shell Lake Building fires Significant
10 $10,000 Shell Lake Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle Significant
06 How Washburn County compares

Washburn County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

42.82
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Washburn County
42.82
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
8.36
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Washburn County
8.36
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Washburn County
0
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Washburn County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55129.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Washburn County

5 departments report from this county.

Spooner Vol Fire Dept
Spooner
FDID 65040 89 incidents
Birchwood Vol Fire Dept
Birchwood
FDID 65010 40 incidents 1 paid 1 vol
Shell Lake Fire Dept
Shell Lake
FDID 65030 35 incidents
Minong Vol Fire Dept
Minong
FDID 65020 27 incidents
Chicog Vol Fire Dept
Trego
FDID 65050 0 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.