In 2025, fire departments serving Weehawken responded to 161 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 71% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
534 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $1.4M cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 69 | — | |
| 2022 | 87 | +26.1% | |
| 2023* | 32 | — | |
| 2024 | 185 | — | |
| 2025 | 161 | -13.0% |
* Well below Weehawken'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 1 building fires Weehawken departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 47 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 | 13 | 27.7% | |
| 2 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 9 | 19.1% | |
| 3 | Other | 7 | 14.9% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 4 | 8.5% | |
| 5 | Cooking area, kitchen | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 6 | Wall surface: exterior | 2 | 4.3% | |
| 7 | Exterior stairway, ramp, or fire escape | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Dining room, cafeteria bar area, beverage service | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 6 | 12.8% |
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 Weehawken mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 30 | 63.8% | |
| 2 | Heat source: other | 4 | 8.5% | |
| 3 | Cigarette | 4 | 8.5% | |
| 4 | Arcing | 3 | 6.4% | |
| 5 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 6 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 7 | Hot or smoldering object, other | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 8 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 9 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 1 | 2.1% | |
| 10 | Flying brand, ember, spark | 1 | 2.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Weehawken sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
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 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 641 | 28.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | 552 | 32.5 mi | |
| 1994 | Smoking | 500 | 48.9 mi | |
| 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | 485 | 33.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Smoking | 481 | 35.2 mi | |
| 2010 | Firearms and explosives use | 475 | 25.5 mi | |
| 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 468 | 40.9 mi | |
| 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 450 | 34.2 mi | |
| 1999 | Recreation and ceremony | 410 | 34.0 mi | |
| 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | 363 | 20.1 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 350 | 19.7 mi |
Top 4 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 Weehawken. 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.