In 2025, fire departments serving Clark responded to 168 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $50K 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 61% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
434 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $7.3M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 59 | — | |
| 2022 | 89 | +50.8% | |
| 2023 | 81 | -9.0% | |
| 2024* | 37 | — | |
| 2025 | 168 | — |
* Well below Clark'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 Clark departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 159 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 | 60 | 37.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 35 | 22.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 15 | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 12 | 7.5% | |
| 5 | Other | 6 | 3.8% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 6 | 3.8% | |
| 7 | Equipment or service area, other | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Vehicle area, other | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 14 | 8.8% |
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 Clark mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 120 | 75.5% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 8 | 5.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 4 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 7 | Match | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 8 | Sunlight | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 1.3% | |
| 10 | Cigarette | 2 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 4 | 2.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Clark departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $50,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Clark sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 42,664 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 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 43.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 44.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,277 | 48.2 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 42.2 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 48.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Smoking | 702 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 39.7 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 | 07066 | 434 |
Six New Jersey cities with population within ±25% of Clark. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Clark.
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.