In 2025, fire departments serving Bay Head responded to 46 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $36K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Arcing, shorted electrical equipment lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
108 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $74K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022 | 18 | — | |
| 2023 | 21 | +16.7% | |
| 2024 | 22 | +4.8% | |
| 2025 | 46 | +109.1% |
* Well below Bay Head'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 5 building fires Bay Head departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 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 | 3 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Roof surface: exterior | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Function area, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 11.1% |
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 Bay Head mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chemical reaction | 2 | 22.2% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Match | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Candle | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Lightning | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 8 | Undetermined | 1 | 11.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Bay Head departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $36,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $12,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Arcing, shorted electrical equipment | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $500 | Power line down | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Bay Head sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 107,317 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 | 17.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 28.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 29.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 20.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 19.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 3,477 | 48.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 30.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 15.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 23.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 42.3 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 Bay Head. 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.