In 2025, fire departments serving Princeton responded to 371 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $80K 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 63% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Jul dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,161 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $706K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 148 | — | |
| 2022 | 193 | +30.4% | |
| 2023 | 215 | +11.4% | |
| 2024 | 234 | +8.8% | |
| 2025 | 371 | +58.5% |
For the 23 building fires Princeton departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 208 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 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 42 | 20.2% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 39 | 18.8% | |
| 3 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 22 | 10.6% | |
| 4 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 13 | 6.2% | |
| 5 | Undetermined | 10 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Outside area, other | 9 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 9 | 4.3% | |
| 8 | Wildland, woods | 7 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Chute/container - trash, rubbish, waste | 5 | 2.4% | |
| 10 | Laboratory | 4 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 48 | 23.1% |
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 Princeton mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 86 | 41.3% | |
| 2 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 28 | 13.5% | |
| 3 | Cigarette | 12 | 5.8% | |
| 4 | Sunlight | 12 | 5.8% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 10 | 4.8% | |
| 6 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 9 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Chemical reaction | 8 | 3.8% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 7 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Arcing | 6 | 2.9% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 4 | 1.9% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 26 | 12.5% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Princeton departments in 2025. These 7 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $80,000 | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $6,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $2,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $125 | Arcing, shorted electrical equipment | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Princeton sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
8 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 | 3 | |
| 30-39 | 1 | |
| 40-49 | 2 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 1 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 104,729 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 | 36.1 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 48.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 47.5 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 42.1 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 40.6 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 42.5 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 46.7 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 33.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 33.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 24.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 44.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 26.4 mi |
Top 7 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 Princeton. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Princeton.
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.