In 2025, fire departments serving Kearny responded to 594 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Dec peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,552 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $844K cumulative property loss. 3 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 435 | — | |
| 2022 | 454 | +4.4% | |
| 2023 | 465 | +2.4% | |
| 2024 | 604 | +29.9% | |
| 2025 | 594 | -1.7% |
For the 10 building fires Kearny departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 286 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 | 86 | 30.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 28 | 9.8% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 27 | 9.4% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 14 | 4.9% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 14 | 4.9% | |
| 6 | Vehicle area, other | 12 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Other | 9 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 9 | 3.1% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 6 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 6 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 75 | 26.2% |
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 Kearny mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 208 | 72.7% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 20 | 7.0% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 11 | 3.8% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 10 | 3.5% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 1.7% | |
| 6 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 1.7% | |
| 7 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 1.7% | |
| 8 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 4 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Heat source: other | 2 | 0.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 11 | 3.8% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Kearny sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
23 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 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 2 | |
| 30-39 | 4 | |
| 40-49 | 10 | |
| 50-59 | 1 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 2 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,727 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 32.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 45.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 36.6 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 21.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 31.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 22.8 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 15.0 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 Kearny. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.