In 2025, fire departments serving Riverside responded to 62 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $390K 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 65% of all calls.
Feb peaks. Dec dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
306 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $688K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 31 | — | |
| 2022 | 55 | — | |
| 2023 | 60 | +9.1% | |
| 2024 | 98 | +63.3% | |
| 2025 | 62 | -36.7% |
* Well below Riverside'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 8 building fires Riverside departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 29 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 | 6 | 20.7% | |
| 2 | Cooking area, kitchen | 4 | 13.8% | |
| 3 | Outside area, other | 4 | 13.8% | |
| 4 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 3 | 10.3% | |
| 5 | Exterior, exposed surface | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 6 | Interior stairway or ramp | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Storage: supplies or tools; dead storage | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 9 | Substructure area or space, crawl space | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 10 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 5 | 17.2% |
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 Riverside mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 21 | 72.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 6.9% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 6 | Cigarette | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 7 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 1 | 3.4% | |
| 8 | Chemical reaction | 1 | 3.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Riverside departments in 2025. These 6 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $390,000 | Building fires | Major | Investigated |
| 2 | $100,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $5,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $1,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $50 | Outside rubbish, trash or waste fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Riverside sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 106,572 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 | 35.4 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 41.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 36.9 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 32.5 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 37.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 39.9 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 29.8 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 22.8 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 34.5 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 24.3 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 24.9 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 08075 | 306 |
Six New Jersey cities with population within ±25% of Riverside. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Riverside.
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.