In 2025, fire departments serving Yale responded to 34 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $35K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Grass fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 79% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
280 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $148K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 33 | — | |
| 2022 | 45 | — | |
| 2023 | 89 | +97.8% | |
| 2024 | 79 | -11.2% | |
| 2025 | 34 | -57.0% |
* Well below Yale'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 Yale departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 131 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 | 34 | 26.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 27 | 20.6% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 25 | 19.1% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 13 | 9.9% | |
| 5 | Wildland, woods | 8 | 6.1% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Other | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Structural area, other | 2 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 9 | 6.9% |
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 Yale mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 77 | 58.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 8 | 6.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 8 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Radiated heat from another fire | 4 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 2.3% | |
| 9 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 9 | 6.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Yale departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $35,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $7,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Yale sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 292,401 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Smoking | 58,501 | 18.3 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 20,307 | 48.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 17,683 | 37.3 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 16,423 | 38.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Debris and open burning | 14,910 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 14,000 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2011 | Debris and open burning | 11,382 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 10,816 | 26.0 mi | |
| 2009 | Debris and open burning | 10,216 | 27.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 9,636 | 27.0 mi | |
| 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 9,080 | 48.6 mi | |
| 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 8,792 | 20.2 mi |
Top 6 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Oklahoma cities with population within ±25% of Yale. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Yale.
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.