In 2025, fire departments serving Cliffside Park responded to 157 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $60K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 95% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
618 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $60K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 230 | — | |
| 2022* | 17 | — | |
| 2023 | 98 | — | |
| 2024 | 116 | +18.4% | |
| 2025 | 157 | +35.3% |
* Well below Cliffside Park'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 Cliffside Park departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 13 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 23.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 2 | 15.4% | |
| 3 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Structural area, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 8 | Wall assembly | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 9 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 10 | Outside area, other | 1 | 7.7% |
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 Cliffside Park mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 10 | 76.9% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 7.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cliffside Park departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $60,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cliffside Park sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,391 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 24.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 29.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 29.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 37.2 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 38.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 16.1 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 20.6 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 | 07010 | 618 |
Six New Jersey cities with population within ±25% of Cliffside Park. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Cliffside Park.
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.