In 2025, fire departments serving Excelsior Springs responded to 127 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $175K 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 58% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
456 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $3.5M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 67 | — | |
| 2022* | 30 | — | |
| 2023 | 109 | — | |
| 2024 | 123 | +12.8% | |
| 2025 | 127 | +3.3% |
* Well below Excelsior Springs'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 16 building fires Excelsior Springs departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 125 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 20 | 16.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 17 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 12 | 9.6% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 8 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 7 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 7 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Other | 5 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 5 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 5 | 4.0% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 4 | 3.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 35 | 28.0% |
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 Excelsior Springs mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 39 | 31.2% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 20 | 16.0% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 7.2% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 8 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 8 | 6.4% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 7 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 4 | 3.2% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 18 | 14.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Excelsior Springs departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 92% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $175,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Excelsior Springs sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
8 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,758 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 902 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 667 | 43.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 600 | 41.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 | 44.4 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 | 64024 | 456 |
Six Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Excelsior Springs. 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.