In 2025, fire departments serving Hamburg responded to 45 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $30K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Carbon monoxide incident lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 76% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
182 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $465K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 56 | — | |
| 2022* | 8 | — | |
| 2023* | 19 | — | |
| 2024 | 54 | — | |
| 2025 | 45 | -16.7% |
* Well below Hamburg'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 0 building fires Hamburg departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 19 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 | 8 | 42.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 15.8% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 4 | Other | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Function area, other | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 6 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 7 | Wall assembly | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 8 | Wall surface: exterior | 1 | 5.3% | |
| 9 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 5.3% |
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 Hamburg mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 16 | 84.2% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 2 | 10.5% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 1 | 5.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hamburg departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $30,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hamburg sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 29,999 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 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2008 | Smoking | 2,855 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 2,759 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,265 | 41.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,028 | 38.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 998 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 995 | 33.6 mi | |
| 2001 | Smoking | 866 | 48.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 812 | 39.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 29.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 647 | 33.7 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 Hamburg. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Hamburg.
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.