In 2025, fire departments serving Great Bend responded to 10 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Road freight or transport vehicle fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 80% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
74 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 22 | — | |
| 2022 | 20 | -9.1% | |
| 2023 | 14 | -30.0% | |
| 2024* | 8 | — | |
| 2025 | 10 | — |
* Well below Great Bend'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 Great Bend departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 32 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 | 68.8% | |
| 2 | Other | 3 | 9.4% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 2 | 6.2% |
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 Great Bend mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 27 | 84.4% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 4 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Cigarette | 1 | 3.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Great Bend sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 2,331 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 398 | 41.6 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 230 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 210 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 136 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Debris and open burning | 102 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Recreation and ceremony | 96 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 93 | 49.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 85 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 82 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 81 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 76 | 42.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 75 | 27.3 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 | 18821 | 74 |
Six Pennsylvania cities with population within ±25% of Great Bend. 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.