In 2025, fire departments serving Cottonwood Falls responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $25K 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 91% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
48 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $112K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022 | 10 | — | |
| 2023 | 17 | +70.0% | |
| 2024 | 10 | -41.2% | |
| 2025 | 11 | +10.0% |
* Well below Cottonwood Falls'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 Cottonwood Falls departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 35 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 | 12 | 34.3% | |
| 2 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 7 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 5 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Structural area, other | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 2.9% |
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 Cottonwood Falls mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 14 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 5 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 8.6% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 5.7% | |
| 6 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Munitions | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Lightning | 1 | 2.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cottonwood Falls departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $25,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cottonwood Falls sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 164,590 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 | 13.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 23,000 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,700 | 42.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,000 | 24.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,500 | 32.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,500 | 30.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 5,000 | 6.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 17.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 45.4 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 | 66845 | 48 |
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Cottonwood Falls. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Cottonwood Falls.
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.