In 2025, fire departments serving Hugoton responded to 27 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
180 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $30K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 50 | — | |
| 2022 | 38 | -24.0% | |
| 2023 | 24 | -36.8% | |
| 2024 | 41 | +70.8% | |
| 2025 | 27 | -34.1% |
For the 1 building fires Hugoton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 136 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 | 40 | 29.4% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 36 | 26.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 13 | 9.6% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 11 | 8.1% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 7 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 4 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Function area, other | 2 | 1.5% | |
| 9 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 2 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 15 | 11.0% |
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 Hugoton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 35 | 25.7% | |
| 2 | Lightning | 18 | 13.2% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 16 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 12 | 8.8% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 10 | 7.4% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 7 | 5.1% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 3 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 20 | 14.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hugoton sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
7 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 | 1 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 91,874 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 17,482 | 23.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 11,000 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9,600 | 14.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 7,500 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,500 | 30.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,400 | 30.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,769 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,500 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,126 | 23.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,725 | 16.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,500 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,380 | 21.3 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 | 67951 | 180 |
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Hugoton. 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.