In 2025, fire departments serving Cape May responded to 45 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 80% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
172 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $11K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 6 | — | |
| 2022 | 25 | — | |
| 2023* | 13 | — | |
| 2024 | 83 | — | |
| 2025 | 45 | -45.8% |
* Well below Cape May'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 0 building fires Cape May 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 | Outside area, other | 8 | 47.1% | |
| 2 | Vehicle area, other | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Structural area, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Roof surface: exterior | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 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 Cape May mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 7 | 41.2% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 5 | 29.4% | |
| 3 | Match | 2 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Pipe or cigar | 1 | 5.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cape May sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 17,127 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Natural | 3,477 | 43.1 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 49.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 33.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,535 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 1,518 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,250 | 21.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 765 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 569 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 518 | 48.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 | 33.4 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 390 | 49.8 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 350 | 29.1 mi |
Top 2 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 Cape May. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Cape May.
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.