In 2025, fire departments serving Wichita responded to 2,638 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $450K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Unauthorized burning lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 53% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Apr dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
14,436 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $24.2M cumulative property loss. 10 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,243 | — | |
| 2022 | 2,356 | +5.0% | |
| 2023 | 2,343 | -0.6% | |
| 2024 | 4,856 | +107.3% | |
| 2025 | 2,638 | -45.7% |
For the 303 building fires Wichita departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3,025 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 | 658 | 21.8% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 302 | 10.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 286 | 9.5% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 240 | 7.9% | |
| 5 | Other | 196 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 184 | 6.1% | |
| 7 | Vehicle area, other | 91 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 83 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 79 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 75 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 831 | 27.5% |
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 Wichita mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1,397 | 46.2% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 318 | 10.5% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 275 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 175 | 5.8% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 127 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 97 | 3.2% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 96 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 87 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 78 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 63 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 312 | 10.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wichita departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 43% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $450,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $350,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 4 | $300,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major | Investigated |
| 5 | $135,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $100,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wichita sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
226 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 | 2 | |
| 10-19 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 49 | |
| 30-39 | 58 | |
| 40-49 | 47 | |
| 50-59 | 27 | |
| 60-69 | 9 | |
| 70-79 | 2 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 132,031 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25,650 | 48.8 mi | |
| 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16,000 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14,000 | 32.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10,700 | 24.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8,800 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,400 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6,000 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,500 | 34.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,945 | 33.1 mi | |
| 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4,000 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 3,800 | 31.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3,500 | 30.5 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.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wichita.
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.