In 2025, fire departments serving Lindsborg responded to 36 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $135K 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 55% of all calls.
Oct peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
186 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $518K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 53 | — | |
| 2022 | 53 | +0.0% | |
| 2023 | 30 | -43.4% | |
| 2024* | 14 | — | |
| 2025 | 36 | — |
* Well below Lindsborg'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 2 building fires Lindsborg departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 61 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 | 24 | 39.3% | |
| 2 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 8 | 13.1% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 7 | 11.5% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 6 | 9.8% | |
| 5 | Other | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Interior stairway or ramp | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 7 | 11.5% |
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 Lindsborg mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 23 | 37.7% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 11 | 18.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 8.2% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 8.2% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 3 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 1 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 8.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Lindsborg departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $135,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $75,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,600 | Cultivated grain or crop fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $300 | Grass fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $300 | Cultivated grain or crop fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Lindsborg sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 115,260 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 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,000 | 35.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,800 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 24.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 49.2 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 6,000 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,350 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 49.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,960 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,945 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,840 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,200 | 47.5 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 Lindsborg. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Lindsborg.
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.