In 2025, fire departments serving Dighton responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 60% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
27 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $65K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022 | 4 | — | |
| 2023 | 4 | +0.0% | |
| 2024 | 8 | +100.0% | |
| 2025 | 10 | +25.0% |
* Well below Dighton'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 Dighton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 14 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 | Outside area, other | 3 | 21.4% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 21.4% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 1 | 7.1% |
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 Dighton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 28.6% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 4 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 8 | Lightning | 1 | 7.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dighton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 49,282 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 18,000 | 8.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,000 | 47.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,900 | 26.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,800 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 27.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 12.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1,200 | 0.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 749 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 650 | 40.5 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 | 67839 | 27 |
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Dighton. 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.