In 2025, fire departments serving Wamego responded to 44 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 52% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
230 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $1.1M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 52 | — | |
| 2022 | 67 | +28.8% | |
| 2023* | 25 | — | |
| 2024 | 42 | — | |
| 2025 | 44 | +4.8% |
* Well below Wamego'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 Wamego departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 61 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 | Outside area, other | 10 | 16.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 9 | 14.8% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 9.8% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 4 | 6.6% | |
| 5 | Other | 3 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Storage area, other | 3 | 4.9% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Storage room, area, tank, or bin | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 18 | 29.5% |
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 Wamego mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot ember or ash | 11 | 18.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 11.5% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 11.5% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 7 | 11.5% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 4 | 6.6% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 6.6% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 4.9% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 3 | 4.9% | |
| 9 | Heat source: other | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 2 | 3.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 18.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wamego departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $306,040 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $9,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $2,500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $350 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wamego sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 107,839 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12,000 | 19.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 36.5 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,000 | 11.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7,000 | 14.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,500 | 25.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,289 | 25.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,278 | 28.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 34.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,000 | 26.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,800 | 26.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 25.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,500 | 29.9 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 Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Wamego. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wamego.
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.