In 2025, fire departments serving Wayne responded to 276 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 58% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Sep dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
1,284 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 139 | — | |
| 2023 | 411 | — | |
| 2024 | 458 | +11.4% | |
| 2025 | 276 | -39.7% |
* Well below Wayne'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 7 building fires Wayne departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 193 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 | 53 | 27.5% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 25 | 13.0% | |
| 3 | Vehicle area, other | 17 | 8.8% | |
| 4 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 14 | 7.3% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 10 | 5.2% | |
| 6 | Highway, parking lot, street: on or near | 9 | 4.7% | |
| 7 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 7 | 3.6% | |
| 8 | Bedroom - < 5 persons; included are jail or prison | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 43 | 22.3% |
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 Wayne mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 115 | 59.6% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 18 | 9.3% | |
| 3 | Arcing | 13 | 6.7% | |
| 4 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 9 | 4.7% | |
| 5 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 6 | Hot ember or ash | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 7 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 5 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 3 | 1.6% | |
| 10 | Fireworks | 3 | 1.6% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 12 | 6.2% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Wayne sits below the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 12,871 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 | 47.0 mi | |
| 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | 750 | 44.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Smoking | 700 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 17.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 623 | 45.8 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 20.1 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 32.0 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 19.8 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 25.7 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 32.1 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 31.0 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 45.1 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 | 07470 | 1,284 |
Six New Jersey cities with population within ±25% of Wayne. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
1 departments report to NFIRS for incidents in Wayne.
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.