In 2025, fire departments serving Tulsa responded to 5,857 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $800K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 55% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
25,033 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $66.5M cumulative property loss. 11 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 3,283 | — | |
| 2022 | 5,199 | +58.4% | |
| 2023 | 5,003 | -3.8% | |
| 2024 | 5,691 | +13.8% | |
| 2025 | 5,857 | +2.9% |
For the 408 building fires Tulsa departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6,239 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 | 1,245 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 812 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 746 | 12.0% | |
| 4 | Other | 351 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 340 | 5.4% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 229 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 183 | 2.9% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 165 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 152 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 137 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1,879 | 30.1% |
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 Tulsa mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3,348 | 53.7% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 473 | 7.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 374 | 6.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 355 | 5.7% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 303 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 198 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 177 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Heat source: other | 152 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 150 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 122 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 587 | 9.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Tulsa departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 25% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $800,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $510,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $500,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $477,900 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 6 | $400,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 7 | $370,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 8 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Tulsa sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
28 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 309,912 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Smoking | 58,501 | 32.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 22,787 | 45.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Debris and open burning | 21,860 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 17,683 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 14,910 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 14,000 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 12,468 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 11,382 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 11,258 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 10,816 | 24.7 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 10,216 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 9,636 | 25.7 mi |
Top 10 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
5 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Tulsa.
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.