In 2025, fire departments serving Union City responded to 638 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $150K 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 72% of all calls.
Dec peaks. Oct dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
2,274 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $12.0M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 348 | — | |
| 2022 | 403 | +15.8% | |
| 2023* | 179 | — | |
| 2024 | 706 | — | |
| 2025 | 638 | -9.6% |
* Well below Union City'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 16 building fires Union City departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 159 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 | 37 | 23.3% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 18 | 11.3% | |
| 3 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 13 | 8.2% | |
| 4 | Other | 10 | 6.3% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 10 | 6.3% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 9 | 5.7% | |
| 7 | Outside area, other | 9 | 5.7% | |
| 8 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 7 | 4.4% | |
| 9 | Common room, den, family room, living room, lounge | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 10 | Vehicle area, other | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 38 | 23.9% |
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 Union City mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 104 | 65.4% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 13 | 8.2% | |
| 3 | Heat source: other | 9 | 5.7% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 6 | 3.8% | |
| 5 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 6 | Arcing | 5 | 3.1% | |
| 7 | Cigarette | 4 | 2.5% | |
| 8 | Cigarette lighter | 2 | 1.3% | |
| 9 | Chemical reaction | 2 | 1.3% | |
| 10 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 2 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 7 | 4.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Union City departments in 2025. These 3 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $150,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $30,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $100 | Trash or rubbish fire, contained | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Union City sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
30 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 | 1 | |
| 30-39 | 8 | |
| 40-49 | 11 | |
| 50-59 | 7 | |
| 60-69 | 2 | |
| 70-79 | 1 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 8,547 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 28.2 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 32.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 48.2 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 32.9 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 25.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 33.9 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 20.3 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 19.0 mi |
Top 10 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 Union City. 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.