In 2025, fire departments serving Cherryvale responded to 80 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $15K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
377 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $350K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 44 | — | |
| 2022 | 129 | — | |
| 2023* | 39 | — | |
| 2024 | 85 | — | |
| 2025 | 80 | -5.9% |
* Well below Cherryvale'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 9 building fires Cherryvale 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 | 11 | 13.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 11 | 13.4% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 8 | 9.8% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 6 | 7.3% | |
| 5 | Other | 5 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 24 | 29.3% |
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 Cherryvale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 31 | 37.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 9 | 11.0% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 7.3% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Fireworks | 5 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 9 | Radiated heat from another fire | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 13.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cherryvale departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $15,000 | Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $12,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $8,000 | Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $4,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $3,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $2,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $500 | Special outside fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $200 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cherryvale sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 169,769 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 22,787 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 14,000 | 28.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 12,468 | 39.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,000 | 35.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,000 | 28.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,000 | 42.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 11,258 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 9,077 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 8,000 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Natural | 5,498 | 48.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,120 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 5,015 | 48.2 mi |
Top 5 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 Cherryvale. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Cherryvale.
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.