In 2025, fire departments serving Sterling responded to 18 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 94% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
88 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $253K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 4 | — | |
| 2022 | 19 | — | |
| 2023 | 11 | -42.1% | |
| 2024 | 36 | +227.3% | |
| 2025 | 18 | -50.0% |
* Well below Sterling'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 Sterling departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 34 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 | 10 | 29.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 8 | 23.5% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 6 | 17.6% | |
| 4 | Other | 2 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 2 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Structural area, other | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 2.9% |
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 Sterling mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 14 | 41.2% | |
| 2 | Hot ember or ash | 11 | 32.4% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 2 | 5.9% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 7 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Lightning | 1 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 2.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Sterling sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 110,929 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,000 | 13.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,000 | 29.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,800 | 30.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 16.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 38.8 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 6,000 | 18.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 11.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,960 | 16.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,945 | 29.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,664 | 19.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,200 | 46.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 3,000 | 27.9 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 | 67579 | 88 |
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Sterling. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Sterling.
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.