In 2025, fire departments serving Wathena responded to 17 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $189K building blaze. 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 82% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
60 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $371K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 6 | — | |
| 2022* | 7 | — | |
| 2023 | 16 | — | |
| 2024 | 14 | -12.5% | |
| 2025 | 17 | +21.4% |
* Well below Wathena'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 2 building fires Wathena departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 30 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 | 15 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 4 | 13.3% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Cargo/trunk area - all vehicles | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - 5+ persons; including barrack/dormitory | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 7 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 3.3% |
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 Wathena mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Match | 10 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 10 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 2 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 1 | 3.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wathena departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $189,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wathena sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,087 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,020 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 940 | 41.2 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 900 | 33.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 36.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 45.5 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 700 | 30.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 667 | 18.3 mi | |
| 1997 | Debris and open burning | 600 | 38.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Debris and open burning | 600 | 27.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 9.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 476 | 29.7 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 Wathena. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wathena.
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.