In 2025, fire departments serving Rio Grande responded to 80 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.
Jun peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
315 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $70K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 32 | — | |
| 2022 | 67 | — | |
| 2023 | 62 | -7.5% | |
| 2024 | 74 | +19.4% | |
| 2025 | 80 | +8.1% |
* Well below Rio Grande'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 4 building fires Rio Grande departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 59 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 | Wildland, woods | 15 | 25.4% | |
| 2 | Outside area, other | 9 | 15.3% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 9 | 15.3% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 8 | 13.6% | |
| 5 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 6 | 10.2% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 4 | 6.8% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Other | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 3 | 5.1% |
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 Rio Grande mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 23 | 39.0% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 18 | 30.5% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 4 | 6.8% | |
| 4 | Heat source: other | 3 | 5.1% | |
| 5 | Hot ember or ash | 3 | 5.1% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 2 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 10 | Backfire from internal combustion engine | 1 | 1.7% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 1 | 1.7% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Rio Grande sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 29,438 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 47.4 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 3,477 | 38.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 43.7 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,950 | 49.8 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,900 | 47.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,600 | 49.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,535 | 24.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 1,518 | 23.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,250 | 24.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 765 | 25.5 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 Rio Grande. 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.