In 2025, fire departments serving Emporia responded to 283 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $104K 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 62% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,234 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $5.0M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 234 | — | |
| 2022 | 194 | -17.1% | |
| 2023 | 256 | +32.0% | |
| 2024 | 267 | +4.3% | |
| 2025 | 283 | +6.0% |
For the 31 building fires Emporia departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 424 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 | 94 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 70 | 16.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 45 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 32 | 7.5% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 25 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 19 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 17 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 14 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Exterior, exposed surface | 11 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 8 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 89 | 21.0% |
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 Emporia mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 233 | 55.0% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 32 | 7.5% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 22 | 5.2% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 16 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 15 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 12 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 12 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 8 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 7 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 60 | 14.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Emporia departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 63% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $103,600 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $65,900 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Emporia sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
11 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 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 167,659 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 | 27.5 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 23,000 | 33.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,000 | 46.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,000 | 47.9 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,000 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,500 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,500 | 28.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 24.2 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 5,000 | 15.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 12.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,500 | 12.4 mi |
Top 4 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 Emporia. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Emporia.
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.