In 2025, fire departments serving De Soto responded to 65 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $450K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 54% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
261 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $833K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 36 | — | |
| 2022 | 53 | +47.2% | |
| 2023* | 13 | — | |
| 2024 | 94 | — | |
| 2025 | 65 | -30.9% |
* Well below De Soto'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 5 building fires De Soto departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 62 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 | 15 | 24.2% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 11 | 17.7% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 5 | 8.1% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 6.5% | |
| 7 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 10 | 16.1% |
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 De Soto mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 41 | 66.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 8.1% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 6.5% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 8 | Fireworks | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 2 | 3.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by De Soto departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $450,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $750 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. De Soto sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 14,282 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1,250 | 47.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 900 | 26.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 13.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 22.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 9.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 20.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 667 | 37.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 480 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 459 | 41.5 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 | 66018 | 261 |
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of De Soto. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.