In 2025, fire departments serving Wheatley responded to 19 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $75K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Outside rubbish fire, other lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 84% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
56 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $225K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 11 | — | |
| 2022 | 23 | +109.1% | |
| 2023* | 1 | — | |
| 2024* | 2 | — | |
| 2025 | 19 | — |
* Well below Wheatley'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 Wheatley departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 19 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 | 11 | 57.9% | |
| 2 | Other | 4 | 21.1% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Equipment or service area, other | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 5.3% |
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 Wheatley mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 11 | 57.9% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 8 | 42.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wheatley departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $75,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wheatley sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 5,856 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 776 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 441 | 43.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 319 | 23.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Debris and open burning | 282 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 275 | 49.0 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 270 | 46.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 255 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 250 | 8.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Debris and open burning | 239 | 22.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 238 | 35.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Debris and open burning | 221 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 213 | 44.3 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 | 72392 | 56 |
Six Arkansas cities with population within ±25% of Wheatley. 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.