In 2025, fire departments serving Oologah responded to 43 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $550K 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 63% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
181 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 27 | — | |
| 2022 | 55 | +103.7% | |
| 2023* | 21 | — | |
| 2024 | 35 | — | |
| 2025 | 43 | +22.9% |
* Well below Oologah'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 3 building fires Oologah departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 85 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 | 27 | 31.8% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 15 | 17.6% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 14 | 16.5% | |
| 4 | Structural area, other | 4 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 7 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 2 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 9 | 10.6% |
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 Oologah mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 30 | 35.3% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 11 | 12.9% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 8.2% | |
| 4 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 4 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 4 | 4.7% | |
| 6 | Conducted heat from another fire | 4 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Heat, spark from friction | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Lightning | 3 | 3.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 13 | 15.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Oologah departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $550,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $40,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $25,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $10,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Oologah sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 223,720 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 22,787 | 24.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 17,683 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 14,910 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 14,000 | 33.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 12,468 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 11,258 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 10,816 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 10,216 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 9,636 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 8,792 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Debris and open burning | 8,000 | 39.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,722 | 46.6 mi |
Top 3 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 Oologah. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Oologah.
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.