In 2025, fire departments serving Odessa responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $4K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 82% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
130 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $246K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 71 | — | |
| 2022 | 30 | -57.7% | |
| 2023* | 9 | — | |
| 2024* | 3 | — | |
| 2025 | 17 | — |
* Well below Odessa'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 8 building fires Odessa departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 51 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 | Undetermined | 15 | 29.4% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 9 | 17.6% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 15.7% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 11.8% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Other | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 5.9% |
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 Odessa mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 26 | 51.0% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 7.8% | |
| 3 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 4 | 7.8% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 3 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 2 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 3.9% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Arcing | 1 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 5.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Odessa departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,500 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Odessa sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,287 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 3,082 | 43.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,654 | 43.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,129 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 902 | 37.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 485 | 46.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 360 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 302 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 17.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 300 | 48.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 300 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Debris and open burning | 292 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 282 | 47.7 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 64076 | 130 |
Six Missouri cities with population within ±25% of Odessa. 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.