In 2025, fire departments serving Secaucus responded to 101 fire and hazmat incidents . 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 72% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
534 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 106 | — | |
| 2022 | 164 | +54.7% | |
| 2023* | 28 | — | |
| 2024 | 135 | — | |
| 2025 | 101 | -25.2% |
* Well below Secaucus'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 Secaucus departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 113 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 | Outside area, other | 57 | 50.4% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 22 | 19.5% | |
| 3 | Roof surface: exterior | 4 | 3.5% | |
| 4 | Cooking area, kitchen | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 5 | Exterior, exposed surface | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 3 | 2.7% | |
| 8 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 9 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 10 | Courtyard, patio, porch, terrace | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 12 | 10.6% |
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 Secaucus mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 99 | 87.6% | |
| 2 | Cigarette | 5 | 4.4% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 4 | Sunlight | 2 | 1.8% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 6 | Fireworks | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 7 | Match | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 1 | 0.9% | |
| 9 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 0.9% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Secaucus sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,727 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 27.1 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 31.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 34.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 24.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 40.1 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 34.4 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 33.2 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 19.9 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 17.0 mi |
Top 3 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 Secaucus. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Secaucus.
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.