In 2025, fire departments serving Perth Amboy responded to 554 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $275K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 63% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,931 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $4.5M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 97 | — | |
| 2022 | 367 | — | |
| 2023 | 395 | +7.6% | |
| 2024 | 518 | +31.1% | |
| 2025 | 554 | +6.9% |
* Well below Perth Amboy'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 32 building fires Perth Amboy departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 220 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 | 41 | 18.6% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 33 | 15.0% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 17 | 7.7% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 16 | 7.3% | |
| 5 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 13 | 5.9% | |
| 6 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 11 | 5.0% | |
| 7 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 10 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 10 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Other | 8 | 3.6% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 8 | 3.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 53 | 24.1% |
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 Perth Amboy mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 148 | 67.3% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 16 | 7.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 10 | 4.5% | |
| 4 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 6 | 2.7% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 6 | 2.7% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 5 | 2.3% | |
| 7 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 5 | 2.3% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 4 | 1.8% | |
| 9 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 4 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 13 | 5.9% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Perth Amboy departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 69% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $275,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $110,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $50,000 | Off-road vehicle or heavy equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $25,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $20,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Perth Amboy sits above 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 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 55,099 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 | 42.0 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 46.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 47.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 46.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 38.4 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 37.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 37.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 38.6 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,277 | 41.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,012 | 46.3 mi |
Top 6 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 Perth Amboy. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
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.