In 2025, fire departments serving Garwood responded to 44 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $65K 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.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
157 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $175K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 1 | — | |
| 2022 | 22 | — | |
| 2023 | 57 | +159.1% | |
| 2024 | 33 | -42.1% | |
| 2025 | 44 | +33.3% |
* Well below Garwood'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 7 building fires Garwood departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 24 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 | Outside area, other | 6 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 12.5% | |
| 4 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 6 | Undetermined | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Duct: hvac, cable, exhaust, heating, or AC | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 10 | Exterior, exposed surface | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 1 | 4.2% |
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 Garwood mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 9 | 37.5% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 2 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 9 | Match | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 10 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 4.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 4.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Garwood departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $65,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $60,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Garwood sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 22,713 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 44.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 45.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 46.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 46.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 44.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 47.0 mi | |
| 1997 | Smoking | 702 | 47.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 37.8 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 41.0 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 Garwood. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.