In 2025, fire departments serving Garden City responded to 210 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $154K 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 47% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,486 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.8M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 278 | — | |
| 2022 | 287 | +3.2% | |
| 2023 | 281 | -2.1% | |
| 2024 | 430 | +53.0% | |
| 2025 | 210 | -51.2% |
For the 7 building fires Garden City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 472 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 | 93 | 19.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 70 | 14.8% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 49 | 10.4% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 47 | 10.0% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 38 | 8.1% | |
| 6 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 27 | 5.7% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 19 | 4.0% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 12 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Other | 9 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 9 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 99 | 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 Garden City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 264 | 55.9% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 38 | 8.1% | |
| 3 | Fireworks | 29 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 22 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 19 | 4.0% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 16 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 12 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 7 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Radiated heat from another fire | 7 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 50 | 10.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Garden City departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 92% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $154,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $70,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $70,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $19,250 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $19,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $9,400 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Garden City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 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 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 63,159 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 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,000 | 8.3 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,600 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,500 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,326 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,800 | 31.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,200 | 50.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1,200 | 40.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 960 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 805 | 30.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 749 | 21.1 mi |
Top 7 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 Garden City. 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.