In 2025, fire departments serving Moonachie responded to 37 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $266K building blaze. 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 84% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Mar dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
97 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $278K cumulative property loss. 2 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 3 | — | |
| 2022* | 8 | — | |
| 2023 | 23 | — | |
| 2024 | 26 | +13.0% | |
| 2025 | 37 | +42.3% |
* Well below Moonachie'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 7 building fires Moonachie departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3 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 | 3 | 100.0% |
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 Moonachie mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 3 | 100.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Moonachie departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $266,000 | Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $12,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100 | Electrical wiring/equipment problem, other | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Moonachie sits above 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 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 23.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 27.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 27.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 28.3 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 38.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 29.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 15.9 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 16.8 mi |
Top 2 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 Moonachie. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Moonachie.
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.