In 2025, fire departments serving Hutchinson responded to 485 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $80K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 62% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,605 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $12.0M cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 474 | — | |
| 2022 | 499 | +5.3% | |
| 2023 | 501 | +0.4% | |
| 2024 | 646 | +28.9% | |
| 2025 | 485 | -24.9% |
For the 64 building fires Hutchinson departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 802 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 | Outside area, other | 125 | 15.6% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 97 | 12.1% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 95 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 82 | 10.2% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 68 | 8.5% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 59 | 7.4% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 24 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 21 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Exterior, exposed surface | 19 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 17 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 195 | 24.3% |
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 Hutchinson mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 350 | 43.6% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 81 | 10.1% | |
| 3 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 49 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 40 | 5.0% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 34 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 28 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 28 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 21 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 21 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 21 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 129 | 16.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hutchinson departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 48% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $76,000 | Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $71,540 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $60,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $60,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $55,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $55,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hutchinson sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
37 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 12 | |
| 30-39 | 6 | |
| 40-49 | 11 | |
| 50-59 | 3 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 107,459 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 | 10.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,000 | 11.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,800 | 12.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 15.4 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 26.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 6,000 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 27.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,960 | 35.7 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,945 | 12.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,664 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 3,000 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,000 | 33.5 mi |
Top 5 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 Hutchinson. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Hutchinson.
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.