In 2025, fire departments serving Dover responded to 102 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $6.4M 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 58% of all calls.
Oct peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
661 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $6.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 111 | — | |
| 2022 | 152 | +36.9% | |
| 2023 | 121 | -20.4% | |
| 2024 | 175 | +44.6% | |
| 2025 | 102 | -41.7% |
For the 22 building fires Dover departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 324 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 164 | 50.6% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 25 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 24 | 7.4% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 16 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 14 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 11 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 7 | 2.2% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 7 | 2.2% | |
| 9 | Undetermined | 6 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Heating room or area, water heater area | 5 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 45 | 13.9% |
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 Dover mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 160 | 49.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 78 | 24.1% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 26 | 8.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 13 | 4.0% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 12 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 2.2% | |
| 7 | Match | 5 | 1.5% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 0.9% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 3 | 0.9% | |
| 10 | Candle | 3 | 0.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 14 | 4.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Dover departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $6,397,893 | Building fires | Catastrophic | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Dover sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
15 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 | 3 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 2 | |
| 40-49 | 6 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 22,195 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,949 | 39.6 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,265 | 46.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 995 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 812 | 43.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 29.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 43.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 647 | 39.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 31.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 615 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 32.2 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 23.6 mi |
Top 3 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 Dover. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Dover.
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.