In 2025, fire departments serving Newfoundland responded to 16 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $20K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Aircraft standby lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 62% of all calls.
Nov peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
68 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $20K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 11 | — | |
| 2022* | 4 | — | |
| 2023 | 23 | — | |
| 2024 | 14 | -39.1% | |
| 2025 | 16 | +14.3% |
* Well below Newfoundland'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 1 building fires Newfoundland departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 6 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 | Wildland, woods | 2 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 1 | 16.7% |
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 Newfoundland mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 4 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Pipe or cigar | 1 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 16.7% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Newfoundland departments in 2025. These 2 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $20,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $1 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Newfoundland sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 26,255 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 7,949 | 40.5 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 2,759 | 38.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,265 | 49.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,028 | 42.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 995 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 812 | 46.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 34.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 30.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 647 | 41.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 18.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 36.2 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 615 | 42.5 mi |
Top 5 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 Newfoundland. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Newfoundland.
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.