In 2025, fire departments serving Alma responded to 25 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 84% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
101 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $210K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 22 | — | |
| 2022 | 18 | -18.2% | |
| 2023 | 28 | +55.6% | |
| 2024* | 8 | — | |
| 2025 | 25 | — |
* Well below Alma's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 4 building fires Alma departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 17 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 8 | 47.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 17.6% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 5.9% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Alma mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 5 | 29.4% | |
| 2 | Match | 4 | 23.5% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 5.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Alma departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Alma sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 117,304 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,000 | 16.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,000 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,500 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,289 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,278 | 32.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 21.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 5,000 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 24.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,800 | 31.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,500 | 43.6 mi |
Top 5 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Alma. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Alma.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 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. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.