In 2025, fire departments serving Westwood responded to 19 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $8K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 90% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
37 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $20K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 14 | — | |
| 2022* | 3 | — | |
| 2023* | 0 | — | |
| 2024* | 1 | — | |
| 2025 | 19 | — |
* Well below Westwood'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 0 building fires Westwood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 4 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 100.0% |
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 Westwood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 25.0% | |
| 3 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 25.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Westwood departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $7,500 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $6,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Westwood sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 10,730 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 900 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 30.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 | 17.2 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 750 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | 667 | 38.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2005 | Debris and open burning | 429 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 412 | 46.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 400 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 350 | 30.3 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 | 66205 | 37 |
Six Kansas cities with population within ±25% of Westwood. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.