In 2025, fire departments serving Avalon responded to 98 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 89% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
318 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $1.7M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 92 | — | |
| 2023* | 32 | — | |
| 2024 | 91 | — | |
| 2025 | 98 | +7.7% |
* Well below Avalon'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 Avalon departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 17 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 | Undetermined | 4 | 23.5% | |
| 2 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 17.6% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 3 | 17.6% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 17.6% | |
| 5 | Exterior, exposed surface | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 6 | Other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 5.9% |
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 Avalon mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 13 | 76.5% | |
| 2 | Fireworks | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 4 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 5.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Avalon sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 72,468 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 48.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 45.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 49.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 3,477 | 29.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 43.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 39.6 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 37.5 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,950 | 44.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,900 | 41.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,600 | 43.3 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 | 08202 | 318 |
Six New Jersey cities with population within ±25% of Avalon. 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.