In 2025, fire departments serving Ewing responded to 574 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $500K 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 58% of all calls.
Sep peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,572 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $103.1M cumulative property loss. 7 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 344 | — | |
| 2022 | 565 | +64.2% | |
| 2023 | 410 | -27.4% | |
| 2024 | 679 | +65.6% | |
| 2025 | 574 | -15.5% |
For the 58 building fires Ewing departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 717 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 | 311 | 43.4% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 181 | 25.2% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 44 | 6.1% | |
| 4 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 27 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 24 | 3.3% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 20 | 2.8% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 12 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - 5+ persons; including barrack/dormitory | 10 | 1.4% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 8 | 1.1% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 8 | 1.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 72 | 10.0% |
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 Ewing mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 486 | 67.8% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 106 | 14.8% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 36 | 5.0% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 16 | 2.2% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 11 | 1.5% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 10 | 1.4% | |
| 7 | Heat source: other | 8 | 1.1% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 1.0% | |
| 9 | Cigarette | 6 | 0.8% | |
| 10 | Radiated heat from another fire | 5 | 0.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 26 | 3.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ewing departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $300,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $1 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ewing sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
31 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 | 3 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 14 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 4 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 105,947 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 | 35.6 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 46.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 38.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 39.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 41.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 41.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 28.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 22.9 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 24.7 mi |
Top 8 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 Ewing. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Ewing.
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.