In 2025, fire departments serving Glen Gardner responded to 22 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 77% of all calls.
Mar peaks. May dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
179 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $19K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 18 | — | |
| 2022 | 24 | — | |
| 2023 | 70 | +191.7% | |
| 2024 | 45 | -35.7% | |
| 2025 | 22 | -51.1% |
* Well below Glen Gardner'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 Glen Gardner departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 15 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 | 3 | 20.0% | |
| 2 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 20.0% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 5 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Conduit, pipe, utility, or ventilation shaft | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 7 | Chute; laundry or mail, excluding trash chutes | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 8 | Outside area, other | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 9 | Undetermined | 1 | 6.7% |
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 Glen Gardner mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arcing | 6 | 40.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 4 | 26.7% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 2 | 13.3% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 6.7% | |
| 6 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 6.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Glen Gardner sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 20,787 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 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,265 | 38.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 995 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 848 | 39.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 812 | 37.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 22.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 674 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 647 | 35.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 22.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 615 | 40.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 34.9 mi |
Top 2 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 Glen Gardner. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Glen Gardner.
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.