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2025 County Report

Fires in Williams County, ND

In 2025, fire departments serving Williams County responded to 307 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $360K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as High.

31,437 residents FIPS 38105 27 cities · 1 fire depts
Total incidents
307
1,726 across 5 years
Building fires
15
81 wildland
Property loss
$2.3M
$1.3M structure · $986K contents
Casualties
0 / 1
0 civ deaths · 1 civ inj · 0 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Grass fire lead by count. Top five categories make up about 52% of all calls.

307
Total Incidents
Grass fire 65 21.2%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 38 12.4%
Passenger vehicle fire 23 7.5%
Cooking fire, confined to container 17 5.5%
Fire, other 15 4.9%
All other categories 149 48.5%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Williams County?

Jul peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 12
Feb 21
Mar 27
Apr 30
May 39
Jun 21
Jul 64
Aug 27
Sep 22
Oct 15
Nov 18
Dec 11
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Williams County

1,726 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 324
2022 325
2023 355
2024 415
2025 307
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 15 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
79%
128
Cause undetermined
7%
11
Intentional / arson
2%
3
Equipment / heat source failure
9%
15
Under investigation
3%
5
Act of nature (lightning)
0%
0
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.2M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Williams County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 92% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $360,000 Williston Building fires Major
2 $246,400 WILLISTON Building fires Significant
3 $150,000 Williston Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Significant
4 $150,000 Williston Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
5 $135,000 WILLISTON Building fires Significant
6 $60,000 Williston Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
7 $45,000 WILLISTON Passenger vehicle fire Significant
8 $20,925 WILLISTON Building fires Significant
9 $16,519 WILLISTON Passenger vehicle fire Significant
10 $16,000 WILLISTON Passenger vehicle fire Significant
06 How Williams County compares

Williams County vs ND vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

9.77
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Williams County
9.77
ND avg
7.91
US avg
7.15
0.48
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Williams County
0.48
ND avg
0.77
US avg
0.82
0
Civilian fire deaths per million
Williams County
0
ND avg
11.2
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Williams County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 38105.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Williams County

1 departments report from this county.

Ray Fire Prot District
Ray
FDID 53290 12 incidents 25 vol
09 Historical wildfires

Largest fires recorded in ND

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

#NameYearAgencyAcres
1 Windy 2021 USFS 16,161
2 Elkhorn 2024 USFS 10,884
3 Pautre 2013 USFS 10,679
4 LITTLE SWALLOW 2021 BIA 9,057
5 BlackHorseCreek 2006 USFS 7,830
6 Mike'SCreek 1988 USFS 5,819
7 Hwy31 & 101ST West 2022 BIA 5,289
8 Horse Pasture 2021 USFS 4,647
9 Roosevelt Creek 2021 USFS 4,580
10 RidgeRoad 2015 USFS 3,328

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.