In 2025, fire departments serving El Dorado responded to 255 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $200K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,121 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $2.5M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 195 | — | |
| 2022 | 246 | +26.2% | |
| 2023 | 237 | -3.7% | |
| 2024 | 188 | -20.7% | |
| 2025 | 255 | +35.6% |
For the 31 building fires El Dorado departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 438 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 | 71 | 16.2% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 55 | 12.6% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 52 | 11.9% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 40 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 39 | 8.9% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 27 | 6.2% | |
| 7 | Other | 12 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 11 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 11 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 10 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 110 | 25.1% |
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 El Dorado mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 235 | 53.7% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 28 | 6.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 27 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 22 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 15 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 13 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 12 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Radiated heat from another fire | 9 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 8 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 8 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 61 | 13.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by El Dorado departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 73% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $200,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $140,000 | Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $90,460 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $40,000 | Camper or recreational vehicle (RV) fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $38,834 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $37,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. El Dorado sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
14 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 4 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 3 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 205,085 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 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25,650 | 36.3 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 23,000 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,000 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,000 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,700 | 4.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,000 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,800 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 7.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,500 | 9.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,500 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 5,000 | 47.6 mi |
Top 3 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 El Dorado. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in El Dorado.
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.