In 2025, fire departments serving Lansing responded to 60 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $5K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 67% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
139 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $13K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022* | 10 | — | |
| 2023* | 4 | — | |
| 2024 | 60 | — | |
| 2025 | 60 | +0.0% |
* Well below Lansing'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 4 building fires Lansing departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 22 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 | 5 | 22.7% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 13.6% | |
| 4 | Other | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 6 | Shipping/receiving area; loading area, dock or bay | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Maintenance shop or area, paint shop or area | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 2 | 9.1% |
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 Lansing mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 18.2% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 13.6% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 6 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 9.1% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 1 | 4.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 2 | 9.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lansing departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $649 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lansing sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 11,604 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 900 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 20.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 13.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 9.9 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 10.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 667 | 19.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 26.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 459 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 13.7 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 429 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 412 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 11.0 mi |
Top 2 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 Lansing. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Lansing.
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.