In 2025, fire departments serving New Brunswick responded to 168 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $155K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Incomplete 2025 data. New Brunswick's departments reported 168 incidents to NFIRS for 2025, against about 369 in a typical year, so 2025 figures on this page undercount. The 2021–2025 totals are the better guide.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,847 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2021. $2.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 516 | — | |
| 2022 | 327 | -36.6% | |
| 2023 | 351 | +7.3% | |
| 2024 | 485 | +38.2% | |
| 2025* | 168 | — |
* Well below New Brunswick'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 New Brunswick departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 249 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 | 37 | 14.9% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 29 | 11.6% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 28 | 11.2% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 19 | 7.6% | |
| 5 | Other | 16 | 6.4% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 14 | 5.6% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 14 | 5.6% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 10 | 4.0% | |
| 9 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 7 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 70 | 28.1% |
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 New Brunswick mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 134 | 53.8% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 20 | 8.0% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 13 | 5.2% | |
| 4 | Cigarette | 13 | 5.2% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 12 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 10 | 4.0% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 8 | 3.2% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 7 | 2.8% | |
| 10 | Cigarette lighter | 5 | 2.0% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 18 | 7.2% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by New Brunswick departments in 2025. These 5 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $155,461 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $40,000 | Fire, other | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. New Brunswick sits below 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 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 3 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 67,424 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 | 40.3 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 49.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 45.2 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 46.6 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 31.8 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 33.8 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 32.6 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,277 | 40.4 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 New Brunswick. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in New Brunswick.
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.