In 2025, fire departments serving Council Grove responded to 33 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 79% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
138 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $20K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 14 | — | |
| 2022* | 15 | — | |
| 2023 | 48 | — | |
| 2024 | 28 | -41.7% | |
| 2025 | 33 | +17.9% |
* Well below Council Grove'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 1 building fires Council Grove departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 17 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 | 6 | 35.3% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 23.5% | |
| 3 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 1 | 5.9% |
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 Council Grove mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 12 | 70.6% | |
| 2 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 3 | 17.6% | |
| 3 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 4 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 5.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Council Grove sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 155,457 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 | 34.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,000 | 39.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,000 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 49.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,500 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,289 | 39.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,278 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,500 | 48.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 6.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 5,000 | 15.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 31.9 mi |
Top 2 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 Council Grove. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Council Grove.
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.