How Wichita Compares

Here’s how Wichita’s fire department resources and responsibilities stack up against other communities in the region, based on 2005 figures:

City Population Stations Sq Miles Firefighters Annual Budget Annual Alarms
Wichita 354,420 19 154.4 397 $28,621,560 40,028
Omaha, NE 420,000 23 147 654 $64,000,000 33,690
St Louis 325,000 30 61.37 631 $47,053,771 73,799
Topeka, KS 122,008 12 58.5 241 $17,193,525 12,243
Kansas City, KS 146,800 18 127 431 $35,621,948 21,914
Kansas City, MO 441,500 34 317 950 $92,000,648 55,000
Lincoln, NE 250,000 14 82.83 294 $23,455,637 18,457

Wichita firefighters are responsible for more citizens and square miles per firefighter than any of the following similar sized and smaller cities in the region. Remarkably, Wichita’s fire department is by far the lowest funded, per capita, of comparable cities.

City Citizens per Firefighter Cost per Capita Sq miles per Firefighter Sq miles per Station Firefighters per 1,000 Citizens
Wichita 892.75 $80.76 0.39 8.13 1.12
Omaha, NE 642.20 $152.38 0.22 6.39 1.56
St Louis 515.06 $144.78 0.10 2.05 1.94
Topeka 506.26 $140.92 0.24 4.88 1.98
Kansas City, KS 340.60 $242.66 0.29 7.06 2.94
Kansas City, MO 464.74 $208.38 0.33 9.32 2.15
Lincoln, NE 850.34 $93.82 0.28 5.92 1.18

Source: Comparative surveys