In 2025, fire departments serving Kechi responded to 22 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 82% of all calls.
May peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
67 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $35K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022 | 14 | — | |
| 2023 | 14 | +0.0% | |
| 2024 | 17 | +21.4% | |
| 2025 | 22 | +29.4% |
* Well below Kechi'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 Kechi departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 24 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 | 6 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 5 | 20.8% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Maintenance shop or area, paint shop or area | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 10 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 4.2% |
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 Kechi mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 12 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 12.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 4.2% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kechi sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 161,131 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30,000 | 44.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,000 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,000 | 27.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,700 | 19.6 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,000 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,800 | 26.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,500 | 27.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,945 | 28.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 27.1 mi |
Top 3 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 Kechi. 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.