Home› Counties› WI› Winnebago County
2025 County Report

Fires in Winnebago County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Winnebago County responded to 608 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $500K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

139,094 residents FIPS 55139 55 cities · 13 fire depts
Total incidents
608
4,610 across 5 years
Building fires
114
64 wildland
Property loss
$3.5M
$3.2M structure · $347K contents
Casualties
4 / 1
4 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 49% of all calls.

608
Total Incidents
Building fires 114 18.8%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 67 11.0%
Unauthorized burning 46 7.6%
Passenger vehicle fire 38 6.2%
Carbon monoxide incident 32 5.3%
All other categories 311 51.2%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Winnebago County?

Jan peaks. Dec dips.

Jan 72
Feb 61
Mar 62
Apr 55
May 64
Jun 48
Jul 61
Aug 59
Sep 33
Oct 40
Nov 32
Dec 21
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Winnebago County

4,610 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 1,009
2022 932
2023 1,043
2024 1,018
2025 608
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 114 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
56%
92
Cause undetermined
21%
35
Intentional / arson
4%
6
Equipment / heat source failure
9%
15
Under investigation
8%
13
Act of nature (lightning)
2%
4
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $2.5M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Winnebago County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 79% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $500,000 Neenah Building fires Major
2 $500,000 Neenah Building fires Major
3 $500,000 Neenah Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire Major
4 $196,000 Neenah Building fires Significant
5 $150,000 Menasha Building fires Significant
6 $150,000 Oshkosh Building fires Significant
7 $150,000 Oshkosh Building fires Significant
8 $135,000 City of Oshkosh Passenger vehicle fire Significant
9 $121,020 Menasha Building fires Significant
10 $100,000 Oshkosh Building fires Significant
06 How Winnebago County compares

Winnebago County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

4.37
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Winnebago County
4.37
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
0.82
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Winnebago County
0.82
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
28.8
Civilian fire deaths per million
Winnebago County
28.8
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Winnebago County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55139.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Winnebago County

13 departments report from this county.

NeenahMenasha Fire Rescue
Neenah
FDID 70010 198 incidents 71 paid
Fox Crossing Fire Department
Neenah
FDID 70020 53 incidents 5 paid
Omro Rushford Joint Fire Dept
Omro
FDID 70080 51 incidents 53 vol
Clayton Fire Rescue
Larsen
FDID 70100 40 incidents
OSHKOSH FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 70030 37 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.