In 2025, fire departments serving Mount Laurel responded to 166 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $450K 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 66% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Aug dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,052 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $3.9M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 100 | — | |
| 2022 | 251 | — | |
| 2023 | 237 | -5.6% | |
| 2024 | 298 | +25.7% | |
| 2025 | 166 | -44.3% |
* Well below Mount Laurel'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 Mount Laurel departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 170 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 | 39 | 22.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 28 | 16.5% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 15 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Undetermined | 13 | 7.6% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 11 | 6.5% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 10 | 5.9% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 6 | 3.5% | |
| 8 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 5 | 2.9% | |
| 9 | Exterior, exposed surface | 5 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 4 | 2.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 34 | 20.0% |
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 Mount Laurel mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 113 | 66.5% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 15 | 8.8% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 5 | 2.9% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 2.9% | |
| 5 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 5 | 2.9% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 2.4% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 4 | 2.4% | |
| 8 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 1.8% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 2 | 1.2% | |
| 10 | Heat, spark from friction | 2 | 1.2% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 12 | 7.1% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Mount Laurel departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 98% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $450,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $200,000 | Building or structure weakened or collapsed | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $105,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $9,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $5,155 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $5,000 | Fires in structures other than in a building | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Mount Laurel sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 109,567 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 | 31.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 35.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 27.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 32.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 35.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 23.3 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 3,477 | 46.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 18.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 31.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 22.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 19.1 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 Mount Laurel. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Mount Laurel.
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.