In 2025, fire departments serving Long Branch responded to 350 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 63% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,721 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.3M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 281 | — | |
| 2022 | 282 | +0.4% | |
| 2023 | 325 | +15.2% | |
| 2024 | 483 | +48.6% | |
| 2025 | 350 | -27.5% |
For the 21 building fires Long Branch departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 453 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 | 132 | 29.1% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 67 | 14.8% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 59 | 13.0% | |
| 4 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 44 | 9.7% | |
| 5 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 21 | 4.6% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 20 | 4.4% | |
| 7 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 14 | 3.1% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 13 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 7 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Wall surface: exterior | 7 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 69 | 15.2% |
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 Long Branch mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 205 | 45.3% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 81 | 17.9% | |
| 3 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 20 | 4.4% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 20 | 4.4% | |
| 5 | Arcing | 19 | 4.2% | |
| 6 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 18 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 16 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 15 | 3.3% | |
| 9 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 1.5% | |
| 10 | Candle | 7 | 1.5% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 45 | 9.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Long Branch sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
10 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 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 3 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 96,427 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 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 44.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 47.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 43.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 35.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 35.2 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 42.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 32.5 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 33.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 34.1 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 44.9 mi |
Top 4 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 Long Branch. 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.