In 2025, fire departments serving Kinsley responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $2K building blaze. 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.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
84 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $4K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 36 | — | |
| 2022 | 23 | -36.1% | |
| 2023 | 12 | -47.8% | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 11 | — |
* Well below Kinsley'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 Kinsley departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 39 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 | 10 | 25.6% | |
| 2 | Other | 4 | 10.3% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 10.3% | |
| 4 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 3 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 9 | Dining room, cafeteria bar area, beverage service | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 7 | 17.9% |
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 Kinsley mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 20.5% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 6 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 6 | 15.4% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 12.8% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 10.3% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 8 | Lightning | 2 | 5.1% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 2.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Kinsley departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,000 | Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $2,000 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100 | Cultivated grain or crop fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kinsley sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 132,140 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 37,000 | 38.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30,000 | 41.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,000 | 35.0 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,000 | 34.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 36.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,480 | 18.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 15.0 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,664 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 3,000 | 43.2 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 | 67547 | 84 |
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Kinsley. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Kinsley.
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.