In 2025, fire departments serving Alva responded to 114 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 69% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
601 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $206K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 13 | — | |
| 2022 | 178 | — | |
| 2023 | 189 | +6.2% | |
| 2024 | 107 | -43.4% | |
| 2025 | 114 | +6.5% |
* Well below Alva'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 3 building fires Alva departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 118 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 | Outside area, other | 26 | 22.0% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 17 | 14.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 16 | 13.6% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 11 | 9.3% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 7 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 2 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 25 | 21.2% |
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 Alva mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 56 | 47.5% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 9 | 7.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 6 | 5.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 6 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Lightning | 5 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 4 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 3 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 14 | 11.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Alva departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $2,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $2,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $500 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Alva sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 813,163 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 367,740 | 23.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 70,000 | 21.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 62,481 | 40.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 57,167 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 44,234 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 41,497 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 38,400 | 29.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30,000 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 23,488 | 42.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,100 | 35.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,520 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 6,042 | 35.9 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Oklahoma cities with population within ±25% of Alva. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Alva.
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.