In 2025, fire departments serving Garden Plain responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K 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 82% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
64 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $213K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022 | 10 | — | |
| 2023 | 19 | +90.0% | |
| 2024 | 24 | +26.3% | |
| 2025 | 11 | -54.2% |
* Well below Garden Plain'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 0 building fires Garden Plain departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 21 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 | 4 | 19.0% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 3 | 14.3% | |
| 5 | Other | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Structural area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Outside area, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 4.8% |
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 Plain mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 47.6% | |
| 2 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 8 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 9 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 1 | 4.8% | |
| 10 | Lightning | 1 | 4.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Garden Plain departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $4,000 | Water vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Garden Plain sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 100,098 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,000 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,000 | 27.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,700 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,800 | 27.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 15.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,945 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 3,800 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3,500 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,596 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 | 48.3 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 | 67050 | 64 |
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Garden Plain. 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.