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2025 County Report

Fires in Wood County, WI

In 2025, fire departments serving Wood County responded to 434 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $309K property loss. FEMA NRI rates wildfire risk here as Moderate.

49,704 residents FIPS 55141 25 cities · 18 fire depts
Total incidents
434
2,678 across 5 years
Building fires
145
43 wildland
Property loss
$3.2M
$2.1M structure · $1.1M contents
Casualties
1 / 3
1 civ deaths · 1 civ inj · 2 FF inj
01 The mix

What kinds of fires happen here?

Building fires lead by count. Top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.

434
Total Incidents
Building fires 145 33.4%
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) 43 9.9%
Carbon monoxide incident 30 6.9%
Unauthorized burning 17 3.9%
Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue 16 3.7%
All other categories 183 42.2%
02 Seasonality

When do fires happen in Wood County?

Mar peaks. Sep dips.

Jan 53
Feb 22
Mar 59
Apr 49
May 36
Jun 30
Jul 24
Aug 32
Sep 19
Oct 37
Nov 35
Dec 38
03 Five-year trend

Year over year in Wood County

2,678 incidents from 2021 through 2025.

YearIncidents 
2021 547
2022 536
2023 613
2024 548
2025 434
04 Cause of ignition

What sparks building fires?

For the 145 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.

Unintentional
42%
43
Cause undetermined
20%
21
Intentional / arson
9%
9
Equipment / heat source failure
11%
11
Under investigation
17%
17
Act of nature (lightning)
1%
2
05 The biggest fires

10 fires · $1.5M in losses

Largest single-incident property losses in Wood County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 72% of the county's total.

#Property lossCityTypeSeverity
1 $308,726 Marshfield Building fires Major
2 $300,000 Town of Richfield Building fires Major
3 $175,000 MILLADORE Building fires Significant
4 $150,000 Auburndale Road freight or transport vehicle fire Significant
5 $117,900 Wisconsin Rapids Building fires Significant
6 $115,000 City of Wisconsin Ra Building fires Significant
7 $100,000 Marshfield Building fires Significant
8 $90,700 Seneca Building fires Significant
9 $90,000 Wisconsin Rapids Building fires Significant
10 $90,000 Wisconsin Rapids Building fires Significant
06 How Wood County compares

Wood County vs WI vs the nation

Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.

8.73
Incidents per 1,000 residents
Wood County
8.73
WI avg
8.73
US avg
7.15
2.92
Building fires per 1,000 residents
Wood County
2.92
WI avg
1.73
US avg
0.82
20.1
Civilian fire deaths per million
Wood County
20.1
WI avg
14.4
US avg
5.8
07 Cities in this county

Largest cities in Wood County

12 cities mapped to FIPS 55141.

08 First responders

Busiest fire departments in Wood County

18 departments report from this county.

WISCONSIN RAPIDS FIRE DEPT
Wisconsin Rapids
FDID 71140 118 incidents 32 paid
Marshfield Fire and Rescue
Marshfield
FDID 71130 73 incidents 36 paid
Rudolph Vol Fire Dept
Rudolph
FDID 71100 49 incidents
Grand Rapids TWP Vol Fire Dept
Wisconsin Rapids
FDID 71010 43 incidents 1 paid
NEKOOSA FIRE DEPT
—
FDID 71080 36 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.