In 2025, fire departments serving Erma responded to 46 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 78% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
180 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $15K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 28 | — | |
| 2022* | 20 | — | |
| 2023 | 22 | — | |
| 2024 | 64 | +190.9% | |
| 2025 | 46 | -28.1% |
* Well below Erma'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 4 building fires Erma 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 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 4 | 30.8% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 4 | 30.8% | |
| 3 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 7 | 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 Erma mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 61.5% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 3 | Heat, spark from friction | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 1 | 7.7% | |
| 6 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 7.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Erma sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 23,417 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 3,477 | 40.0 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 45.3 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 31.6 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,900 | 48.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,535 | 25.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 1,518 | 24.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,250 | 23.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 765 | 26.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 677 | 49.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 660 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 569 | 41.7 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 | 08204 | 180 |
Six New Jersey cities with population within ±25% of Erma. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Erma.
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.