In 2025, fire departments serving Jackson responded to 627 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $494K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,544 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $3.6M cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 397 | — | |
| 2022 | 490 | +23.4% | |
| 2023 | 465 | -5.1% | |
| 2024 | 565 | +21.5% | |
| 2025 | 627 | +11.0% |
For the 57 building fires Jackson departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 622 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 | 202 | 32.5% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 84 | 13.5% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 45 | 7.2% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 32 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 28 | 4.5% | |
| 6 | Wildland, woods | 27 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 26 | 4.2% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 25 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Other | 12 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 10 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 131 | 21.1% |
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 Jackson mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 223 | 35.9% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 158 | 25.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 36 | 5.8% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 29 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 24 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Cigarette lighter | 24 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 22 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Cigarette | 15 | 2.4% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 14 | 2.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 14 | 2.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 63 | 10.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Jackson departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $493,952 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $302,100 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 3 | $166,365 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $120,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $39,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $30,000 | Outside storage fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $10,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Jackson sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
19 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 | 1 | |
| 10-19 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 4 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 1 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 108,514 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 | 13.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 27.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 28.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 23.2 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 18.0 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 19.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 3,477 | 47.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 18.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 9.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 8.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 31.9 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 Jackson. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Jackson.
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.