In 2025, fire departments serving Marlow responded to 65 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100K 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 63% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
288 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.1M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 27 | — | |
| 2022* | 14 | — | |
| 2023 | 98 | — | |
| 2024 | 84 | -14.3% | |
| 2025 | 65 | -22.6% |
* Well below Marlow'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 9 building fires Marlow departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 133 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 | 39 | 29.3% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 39 | 29.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 8 | 6.0% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 22 | 16.5% |
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 Marlow mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 32 | 24.1% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 15 | 11.3% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 13 | 9.8% | |
| 4 | Cigarette lighter | 12 | 9.0% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 10 | 7.5% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 9 | 6.8% | |
| 7 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 9 | 6.8% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 7 | 5.3% | |
| 9 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 5.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 14 | 10.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Marlow departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $30,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $8,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Marlow sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 307,322 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 | 56,688 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 39,907 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 23,824 | 26.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 19,200 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 18,000 | 46.0 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17,835 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,500 | 16.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,577 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Firearms and explosives use | 10,471 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2000 | Natural | 10,206 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 8,000 | 10.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 7,880 | 27.7 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 Oklahoma cities with population within ±25% of Marlow. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Marlow.
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.