In 2025, fire departments serving Scotch Plains responded to 93 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 57% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
309 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $50 cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 47 | — | |
| 2022* | 30 | — | |
| 2023* | 19 | — | |
| 2024 | 120 | — | |
| 2025 | 93 | -22.5% |
* Well below Scotch Plains'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 5 building fires Scotch Plains departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 2 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 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Separate operator/control area of transportation | 1 | 50.0% |
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 Scotch Plains mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 50.0% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 1 | 50.0% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Scotch Plains sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 42,664 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 | 49.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 42.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 44.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,240 | 43.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 45.0 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,500 | 44.8 mi | |
| 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | 1,277 | 49.4 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,000 | 42.4 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 45.5 mi | |
| 1997 | Smoking | 702 | 46.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 39.9 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 | 07076 | 309 |
Six New Jersey cities with population within ±25% of Scotch Plains. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Scotch Plains.
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.