In 2025, fire departments serving Ocean City responded to 206 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $1K 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 82% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
509 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $7K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 8 | — | |
| 2023* | 2 | — | |
| 2024 | 291 | — | |
| 2025 | 206 | -29.2% |
* Well below Ocean City'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 Ocean City 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 | Cooking area, kitchen | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 1 | 33.3% |
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 Ocean City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Undetermined | 1 | 33.3% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Ocean City departments in 2025. These 1 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000 | Cooking fire, confined to container | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Ocean City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 103,635 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 | 47.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 34.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 31.1 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 35.6 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 42.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 43.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 28.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 3,477 | 15.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 30.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 44.1 mi |
Top 3 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 Ocean City. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Ocean City.
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.