In 2025, fire departments serving Alpha responded to 12 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 83% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
56 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $11K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 7 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023* | 5 | — | |
| 2024 | 30 | — | |
| 2025 | 12 | -60.0% |
* Well below Alpha'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 Alpha departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6 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 | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Processing/manufacturing area, workroom | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Machinery room or area; elevator machinery room | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Maintenance shop or area, paint shop or area | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 1 | 16.7% |
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 Alpha mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 16.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Alpha sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 21,430 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,949 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,265 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 995 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 848 | 29.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 812 | 35.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 23.7 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 741 | 44.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 674 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 647 | 35.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 615 | 41.4 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 41.7 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 | 08865 | 56 |
Six New Jersey cities with population within ±25% of Alpha. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Alpha.
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.