In 2025, fire departments serving Camden responded to 555 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1.0M 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 57% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,588 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $8.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 337 | — | |
| 2022* | 118 | — | |
| 2023 | 475 | — | |
| 2024 | 1,103 | +132.2% | |
| 2025 | 555 | -49.7% |
* Well below Camden'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 36 building fires Camden departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 438 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 | 143 | 32.6% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 50 | 11.4% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 28 | 6.4% | |
| 4 | Other | 26 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 21 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 20 | 4.6% | |
| 7 | Vacant structural area | 14 | 3.2% | |
| 8 | Cooking area, kitchen | 12 | 2.7% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 11 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 103 | 23.5% |
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 Camden mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 310 | 70.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 24 | 5.5% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 14 | 3.2% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 13 | 3.0% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 11 | 2.5% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 7 | 1.6% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 6 | 1.4% | |
| 8 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 6 | 1.4% | |
| 9 | Radiated heat from another fire | 6 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 36 | 8.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Camden departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 77% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $867,800 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $150,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $81,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Camden sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
16 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 5 | |
| 50-59 | 6 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 107,090 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 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 45.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 36.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 43.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 30.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 28.4 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 42.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 26.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 33.1 mi |
Top 10 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 Camden. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Camden.
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.