In 2025, fire departments serving Plainville responded to 30 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
148 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 7 | — | |
| 2022* | 10 | — | |
| 2023 | 40 | — | |
| 2024 | 61 | +52.5% | |
| 2025 | 30 | -50.8% |
* Well below Plainville'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 1 building fires Plainville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 97 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 | 50 | 51.5% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 8.2% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 6 | 6.2% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 6 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 6 | 6.2% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 4 | 4.1% | |
| 7 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 2 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Other | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 10 | 10.3% |
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 Plainville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 48 | 49.5% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 16 | 16.5% | |
| 3 | Lightning | 9 | 9.3% | |
| 4 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 5 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 4.1% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Fireworks | 3 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 5.2% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Plainville sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 83,031 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 28,000 | 43.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 25.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,600 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 7,500 | 21.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,500 | 23.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,500 | 13.9 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,000 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,250 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,920 | 49.5 mi | |
| 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 20.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1,513 | 18.8 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 | 67663 | 148 |
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Plainville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Plainville.
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.