In 2025, fire departments serving Bucklin responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $600 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.
Aug peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
45 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $575K cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022 | 12 | — | |
| 2023 | 13 | +8.3% | |
| 2024 | 8 | -38.5% | |
| 2025 | 11 | +37.5% |
* Well below Bucklin'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 0 building fires Bucklin departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 21 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 | Undetermined | 5 | 23.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Closet | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Personal service area, barber/beauty salon area | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 9.5% |
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 Bucklin mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 7 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 19.0% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 6 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Lightning | 1 | 4.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bucklin departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $600 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bucklin sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 166,696 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 37,000 | 14.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30,000 | 34.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 18,000 | 46.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,000 | 12.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,000 | 31.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 47.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 21.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 15.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 27.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,480 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 4,190 | 23.0 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 Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Bucklin. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Bucklin.
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.