In 2025, fire departments serving Hillsborough responded to 125 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $100 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 65% of all calls.
May peaks. Jun dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
952 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $50K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 227 | — | |
| 2022* | 114 | — | |
| 2023* | 112 | — | |
| 2024 | 374 | — | |
| 2025 | 125 | -66.6% |
* Well below Hillsborough'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 18 building fires Hillsborough departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 101 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 | 64 | 63.4% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 5 | 5.0% | |
| 4 | Other | 4 | 4.0% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 7 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 8 | Function area, other | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 9 | Outside area, other | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 10 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 6 | 5.9% |
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 Hillsborough mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 83 | 82.2% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 4 | 4.0% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 3 | 3.0% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 9 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 1.0% | |
| 10 | Radiated heat from another fire | 1 | 1.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Hillsborough departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Hillsborough sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 50,862 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 | 44.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 49.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 42.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 41.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 35.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,277 | 46.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,012 | 45.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,000 | 44.2 mi |
Top 5 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 Hillsborough. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Hillsborough.
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.