In 2025, fire departments serving Little Ferry responded to 60 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $14K 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 73% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
257 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $262K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 26 | — | |
| 2022 | 49 | — | |
| 2023 | 55 | +12.2% | |
| 2024 | 67 | +21.8% | |
| 2025 | 60 | -10.4% |
* Well below Little Ferry'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 8 building fires Little Ferry departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 28 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 | Outside area, other | 7 | 25.0% | |
| 2 | Other | 5 | 17.9% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 5 | 17.9% | |
| 4 | Function area, other | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 5 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 4 | 14.3% |
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 Little Ferry mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 9 | 32.1% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 8 | 28.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 3 | 10.7% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 2 | 7.1% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 9 | Explosive, fireworks, other | 1 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Chemical, natural heat source, other | 1 | 3.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Little Ferry departments in 2025. These 4 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $14,200 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $500 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Little Ferry sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,391 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 22.7 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 26.9 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 44.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 27.5 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 29.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 29.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 39.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 28.6 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 15.2 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 17.8 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 07643 | 257 |
Six New Jersey cities with population within ±25% of Little Ferry. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Little Ferry.
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.