In 2025, fire departments serving Benton responded to 30 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $250K 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 73% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
160 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $682K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 6 | — | |
| 2022 | 45 | — | |
| 2023 | 54 | +20.0% | |
| 2024 | 25 | -53.7% | |
| 2025 | 30 | +20.0% |
* Well below Benton'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 Benton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 44 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 | 10 | 22.7% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 22.7% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 7 | 15.9% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 4 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 6.8% | |
| 6 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 3 | 6.8% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 6.8% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Storage area, other | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 2.3% |
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 Benton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 10 | 22.7% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 8 | 18.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 6.8% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 6.8% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 2 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Arcing | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 1 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 6 | 13.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Benton departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $250,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Benton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 171,485 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30,000 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25,650 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,000 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,700 | 10.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,000 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,800 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 15.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,500 | 19.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,500 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,945 | 37.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 19.2 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 67017 | 160 |
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Benton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Benton.
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.