In 2025, fire departments serving Newport responded to 11 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $120K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 91% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
45 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $395K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 5 | — | |
| 2023 | 10 | — | |
| 2024 | 17 | +70.0% | |
| 2025 | 11 | -35.3% |
* Well below Newport'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 Newport departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 1 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 | 1 | 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 Newport mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 1 | 100.0% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Newport departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $120,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Newport sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 44,202 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 48.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 38.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 3,477 | 43.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 38.5 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 28.8 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 14.9 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,950 | 37.4 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,900 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,600 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,535 | 3.8 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 1,518 | 4.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,250 | 27.5 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 08345 | 45 |
Six New Jersey cities with population within ±25% of Newport. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Newport.
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.