In 2025, fire departments serving Hazlet responded to 235 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $40K 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.
Jan peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,175 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $40K cumulative property loss. 4 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 180 | — | |
| 2022 | 249 | +38.3% | |
| 2023 | 210 | -15.7% | |
| 2024 | 301 | +43.3% | |
| 2025 | 235 | -21.9% |
For the 6 building fires Hazlet departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 127 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 | 80 | 63.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 21 | 16.5% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 7 | 5.5% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 5 | 3.9% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 8 | Other | 1 | 0.8% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 0.8% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 0.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 4 | 3.1% |
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 Hazlet mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 112 | 88.2% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 2.4% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 6 | Sunlight | 2 | 1.6% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 0.8% | |
| 8 | Arcing | 1 | 0.8% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 0.8% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hazlet departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $40,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hazlet sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
13 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 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 68,267 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 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 47.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 41.0 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 41.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 32.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 32.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 33.9 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 34.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 34.2 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 Hazlet. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Hazlet.
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.