In 2025, fire departments serving Wall responded to 83 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $15K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Power line down lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 70% of all calls.
Apr peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
334 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2023. $1.2M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 2 | — | |
| 2022* | 39 | — | |
| 2023 | 135 | — | |
| 2024 | 75 | -44.4% | |
| 2025 | 83 | +10.7% |
* Well below Wall'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 10 building fires Wall departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 72 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 | 31 | 43.1% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 8 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 5 | 6.9% | |
| 4 | Wildland, woods | 5 | 6.9% | |
| 5 | Outside area, other | 4 | 5.6% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 7 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 2.8% | |
| 8 | Equipment or service area, other | 2 | 2.8% | |
| 9 | Other | 1 | 1.4% | |
| 10 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 1 | 1.4% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 10 | 13.9% |
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 Wall mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 60 | 83.3% | |
| 2 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 3 | 4.2% | |
| 3 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 2 | 2.8% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 2 | 2.8% | |
| 5 | Cigarette | 2 | 2.8% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 1.4% | |
| 7 | Heat from undetermined smoking material | 1 | 1.4% | |
| 8 | Heat spread from another fire, other | 1 | 1.4% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Wall departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $15,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $8,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $5,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $1,000 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $1 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wall sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 104,729 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 | 20.8 mi | |
| 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 17,050 | 33.7 mi | |
| 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 11,765 | 36.8 mi | |
| 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11,638 | 33.2 mi | |
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5,284 | 24.9 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 4,832 | 24.8 mi | |
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 44.3 mi | |
| 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,900 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,730 | 18.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,600 | 23.2 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 44.6 mi | |
| 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,300 | 23.7 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 Wall. 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.