In 2025, fire departments serving Asbury Park responded to 253 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $300K building blaze. 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 60% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,055 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 162 | — | |
| 2022 | 173 | +6.8% | |
| 2023 | 209 | +20.8% | |
| 2024 | 258 | +23.4% | |
| 2025 | 253 | -1.9% |
For the 24 building fires Asbury Park departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 230 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 | 51 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 30 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 24 | 10.4% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 17 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 15 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 11 | 4.8% | |
| 7 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 10 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 10 | 4.3% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 8 | 3.5% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 6 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 48 | 20.9% |
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 Asbury Park mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 117 | 50.9% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 18 | 7.8% | |
| 3 | Cigarette | 16 | 7.0% | |
| 4 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 15 | 6.5% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 9 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Sunlight | 9 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 8 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Candle | 6 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 2.2% | |
| 10 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 22 | 9.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Asbury Park departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 99% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $240,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $85,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $22,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $16,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Asbury Park sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
14 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 7 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 97,730 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 19,225 | 26.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 38.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 38.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 30.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 30.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 37.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 23.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 28.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 29.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 30.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 39.9 mi |
Top 4 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six New Jersey cities with population within ±25% of Asbury Park. 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.