In 2025, fire departments serving Lawrence responded to 676 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $300K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
4,214 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $13.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 804 | — | |
| 2022 | 935 | +16.3% | |
| 2023 | 909 | -2.8% | |
| 2024 | 890 | -2.1% | |
| 2025 | 676 | -24.0% |
For the 47 building fires Lawrence departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1,126 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 | 191 | 17.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 173 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 123 | 10.9% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 85 | 7.5% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 79 | 7.0% | |
| 6 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 60 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 55 | 4.9% | |
| 8 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 38 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 29 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 27 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 266 | 23.6% |
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 Lawrence mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 519 | 46.1% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 78 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 69 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 63 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 57 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 53 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 41 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 33 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 29 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 29 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 155 | 13.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lawrence departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 70% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $225,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $70,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lawrence sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
21 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 37,563 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,000 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,200 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,000 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,800 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1,700 | 46.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1,500 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1,250 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 900 | 25.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 7.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 21.6 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Lawrence.
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.