In 2025, fire departments serving Upper Saddle River responded to 89 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Cooking fire, confined to container lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 89% of all calls.
May peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
291 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025. $500K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 53 | — | |
| 2022 | 79 | +49.1% | |
| 2023* | 27 | — | |
| 2024 | 43 | — | |
| 2025 | 89 | +107.0% |
* Well below Upper Saddle River'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 6 building fires Upper Saddle River departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 12 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 | 5 | 41.7% | |
| 2 | Other | 4 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Exterior balcony, unenclosed porch | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 5 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 8.3% |
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 Upper Saddle River mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 8 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 2 | 16.7% | |
| 3 | Molten, hot material | 1 | 8.3% | |
| 4 | Match | 1 | 8.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Upper Saddle River sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 13,259 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 2,759 | 41.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,028 | 44.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 21.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 7.5 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 11.6 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 36.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 12.3 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 15.4 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 41.6 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 21.0 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 14.3 mi | |
| 2002 | Natural | 388 | 41.6 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 Upper Saddle River. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Upper Saddle River.
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.