In 2025, fire departments serving Belleville responded to 94 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $20K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 72% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
548 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $20K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 11 | — | |
| 2022* | 2 | — | |
| 2023* | 1 | — | |
| 2024 | 440 | — | |
| 2025 | 94 | -78.6% |
* Well below Belleville'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 21 building fires Belleville departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 90 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 | 21 | 23.3% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 18 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 7 | 7.8% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 5.6% | |
| 5 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 4 | 4.4% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 4 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Wall assembly | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 20 | 22.2% |
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 Belleville mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 34 | 37.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 10 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 10.0% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 7 | 7.8% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 6 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 4 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 4 | 4.4% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 3 | 3.3% | |
| 10 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 2.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 8 | 8.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Belleville departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Belleville sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 9,118 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 26.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 29.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 30.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 23.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 34.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 33.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Debris and open burning | 374 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 21.2 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 | 07109 | 548 |
Six New Jersey cities with population within ±25% of Belleville. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Belleville.
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.