In 2025, fire departments serving Matawan responded to 100 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 63% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
442 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 48 | — | |
| 2022 | 111 | — | |
| 2023 | 126 | +13.5% | |
| 2024 | 57 | -54.8% | |
| 2025 | 100 | +75.4% |
* Well below Matawan'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 5 building fires Matawan departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 81 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 | 30 | 37.0% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 14 | 17.3% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 8 | 9.9% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 6 | 7.4% | |
| 5 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 6 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 7 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 2 | 2.5% | |
| 9 | Wall assembly | 2 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Other | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 10 | 12.3% |
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 Matawan mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 51 | 63.0% | |
| 2 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 11 | 13.6% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 4.9% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 3.7% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 2 | 2.5% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 2 | 2.5% | |
| 7 | Hot ember or ash | 2 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 9 | Fireworks | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 10 | Match | 1 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 3 | 3.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Matawan sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
6 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 2 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 85,198 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 | 34.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 45.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 39.6 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 40.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 29.9 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 31.5 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 31.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,600 | 48.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 32.4 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 Matawan. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
2 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Matawan.
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.