In 2025, fire departments serving Cheney responded to 32 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K 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 78% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
211 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.9M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 10 | — | |
| 2022 | 47 | — | |
| 2023 | 54 | +14.9% | |
| 2024 | 68 | +25.9% | |
| 2025 | 32 | -52.9% |
* Well below Cheney'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 Cheney departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 82 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 | 42 | 51.2% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 8 | 9.8% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 7 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Other | 5 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 5 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 6 | 7.3% |
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 Cheney mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot ember or ash | 32 | 39.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 22 | 26.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 4 | Fireworks | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Match | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 4 | 4.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cheney departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $2,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cheney sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 95,498 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,000 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,000 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,700 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,800 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 10.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,945 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,000 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,596 | 36.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 49.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 45.7 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 | 67025 | 211 |
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Cheney. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Cheney.
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.