In 2025, fire departments serving Midwest City responded to 470 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K 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 56% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,389 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $5.8M cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 469 | — | |
| 2022 | 531 | +13.2% | |
| 2023 | 594 | +11.9% | |
| 2024 | 325 | -45.3% | |
| 2025 | 470 | +44.6% |
For the 20 building fires Midwest City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 773 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 | 149 | 19.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 106 | 13.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 85 | 11.0% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 65 | 8.4% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 59 | 7.6% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 28 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 28 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Other | 22 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 20 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 19 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 192 | 24.8% |
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 Midwest City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 432 | 55.9% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 57 | 7.4% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 41 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 35 | 4.5% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 29 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 26 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 23 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 20 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 15 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 14 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 81 | 10.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Midwest City departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 69% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $45,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $40,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $37,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $35,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $25,000 | Mobile property (vehicle) fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Midwest City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
10 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 | 5 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 124,333 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 26,000 | 15.8 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 16,423 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,954 | 20.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,600 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,766 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,500 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 28.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,760 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,840 | 24.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3,500 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,475 | 2.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,250 | 22.4 mi |
Top 5 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 Midwest City. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Midwest City.
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.