In 2025, fire departments serving Broken Arrow responded to 650 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 61% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,346 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $12.8M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 332 | — | |
| 2022 | 304 | -8.4% | |
| 2023 | 549 | +80.6% | |
| 2024 | 511 | -6.9% | |
| 2025 | 650 | +27.2% |
For the 62 building fires Broken Arrow departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 741 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 | 116 | 15.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 91 | 12.3% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 81 | 10.9% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 72 | 9.7% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 61 | 8.2% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 32 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 23 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 23 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 22 | 3.0% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 21 | 2.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 199 | 26.9% |
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 Broken Arrow mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 242 | 32.7% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 71 | 9.6% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 67 | 9.0% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 59 | 8.0% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 43 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 43 | 5.8% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 41 | 5.5% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 28 | 3.8% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 19 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Lightning | 15 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 113 | 15.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Broken Arrow departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 59% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $221,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $130,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Broken Arrow sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
10 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 270,462 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Smoking | 58,501 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 21,860 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 14,000 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,000 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 11,258 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,880 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 10,816 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 10,216 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 9,636 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 9,080 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 8,792 | 31.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,500 | 28.6 mi |
Top 10 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 Broken Arrow. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Broken Arrow.
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.