In 2025, fire departments serving Phillipsburg responded to 264 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Vehicle accident, general cleanup lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 51% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,134 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $4.7M cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 85 | — | |
| 2022 | 155 | — | |
| 2023 | 208 | +34.2% | |
| 2024 | 422 | +102.9% | |
| 2025 | 264 | -37.4% |
* Well below Phillipsburg'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 13 building fires Phillipsburg departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 154 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 18 | 11.7% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 18 | 11.7% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 14 | 9.1% | |
| 4 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 14 | 9.1% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 9 | 5.8% | |
| 6 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 7 | 4.5% | |
| 7 | Wall surface: exterior | 7 | 4.5% | |
| 8 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 7 | 4.5% | |
| 9 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 4.5% | |
| 10 | Railroad right of way: on or near | 6 | 3.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 47 | 30.5% |
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 Phillipsburg mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 83 | 53.9% | |
| 2 | Arcing | 19 | 12.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 7 | 4.5% | |
| 4 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 5 | 3.2% | |
| 5 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 5 | 3.2% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 4 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Match | 4 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 4 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Cigarette lighter | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 10 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 3 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 17 | 11.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Phillipsburg sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
13 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 | 2 | |
| 20-29 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 0 | |
| 40-49 | 1 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 21,430 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 | 36.3 mi | |
| 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,265 | 33.7 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 995 | 39.3 mi | |
| 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 848 | 27.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 812 | 32.9 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 21.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 741 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 674 | 39.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 647 | 33.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 21.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 615 | 39.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 40.6 mi |
Top 2 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 Phillipsburg. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
3 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Phillipsburg.
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.