In 2025, fire departments serving Mission responded to 103 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 71% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
226 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $729K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 89 | — | |
| 2022* | 17 | — | |
| 2023* | 14 | — | |
| 2024* | 3 | — | |
| 2025 | 103 | — |
* Well below Mission'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 6 building fires Mission departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 14 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 4 | Other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 6 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 9 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 7.1% |
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 Mission mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 9 | 64.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 14.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 1 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 7.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mission departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $162,200 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $2,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000 | Trash or rubbish fire, contained | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $500 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mission sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,820 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 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 15.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 667 | 38.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 44.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 429 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 412 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 350 | 28.1 mi |
Top 7 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 Mission. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.