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2025 County Report

Fires in White County, IN

In 2025, fire departments serving White County responded to 186 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $200K property loss.

12,800 residents FIPS 18181 24 cities · 0 fire depts
Total incidents
186
933 across 5 years
Building fires
25
39 wildland
Property loss
$1.1M
$656K structure · $425K contents
Casualties
1 / 0
1 civ deaths · 0 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Fire, other lead by count. Top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.

186
Total Incidents
Fire, other 35 18.8%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 31 16.7%
Building fires 25 13.4%
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire 15 8.1%
Passenger vehicle fire 11 5.9%
All other categories 69 37.1%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in White County?

Mar peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 12
Feb 15
Mar 40
Apr 16
May 28
Jun 17
Jul 16
Aug 6
Sep 0
Oct 2
Nov 18
Dec 16
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in White County

933 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 127
2022 205
2023 241
2024 174
2025 186
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 25 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
66%
40
Cause undetermined
3%
2
Intentional / arson
11%
7
Equipment / heat source failure
2%
1
Under investigation
10%
6
Act of nature (lightning)
8%
5
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $653K in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in White County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 99% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $200,000 Town of Brookston Building fires Significant
2 $113,000 Chalmers Building fires Significant
3 $100,000 Town of Chalmers Building fires Significant
4 $100,000 Monticello Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire Significant
5 $50,000 Monon Building fires Significant
6 $40,000 Town of Brookston Passenger vehicle fire Significant
7 $20,000 Monticello Passenger vehicle fire Significant
8 $15,000 Monticello Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $10,000 Monticello Building fires Significant
10 $5,000 Town of Chalmers Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How White County compares

White County vs IN vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

14.53
Incidents per 1,000 residents
White County
14.53
IN avg
8.61
US avg
7.15
1.95
Building fires per 1,000 residents
White County
1.95
IN avg
1.26
US avg
0.82
78.1
Civilian fire deaths per million
White County
78.1
IN avg
4.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in White County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 18181.

09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in IN

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

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.