In 2025, fire departments serving Girard responded to 32 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 78% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
173 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $218K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022 | 89 | — | |
| 2023 | 23 | -74.2% | |
| 2024 | 25 | +8.7% | |
| 2025 | 32 | +28.0% |
* Well below Girard'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 8 building fires Girard departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 82 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 | 22 | 26.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 18 | 22.0% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 14 | 17.1% | |
| 4 | Other | 5 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Multiple areas | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Egress/exit, other | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 10 | 12.2% |
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 Girard mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 37 | 45.1% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 11.0% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 5 | 6.1% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 8 | 9.8% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Girard sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 27,018 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 38.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,200 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,560 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,307 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,300 | 21.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 903 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 876 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 750 | 49.2 mi |
Top 2 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 Girard. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Girard.
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.