In 2025, fire departments serving Dodge City responded to 809 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 80% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,442 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $5.7M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,237 | — | |
| 2022 | 723 | -41.6% | |
| 2023 | 797 | +10.2% | |
| 2024 | 876 | +9.9% | |
| 2025 | 809 | -7.6% |
For the 28 building fires Dodge City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 536 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 | 128 | 23.9% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 82 | 15.3% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 62 | 11.6% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 51 | 9.5% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 45 | 8.4% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 27 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Other | 14 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 12 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 11 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 10 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 94 | 17.5% |
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 Dodge City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 216 | 40.3% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 71 | 13.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 46 | 8.6% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 39 | 7.3% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 29 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 26 | 4.9% | |
| 7 | Fireworks | 19 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 14 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 8 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 59 | 11.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dodge City departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 86% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $150,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $120,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $50,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dodge City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 108,830 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 37,000 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,700 | 47.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,000 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 23.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 41.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,480 | 27.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 4,190 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,326 | 2.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 24.7 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 | 67801 | 4,442 |
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Dodge City. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Dodge City.
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.