In 2025, fire departments serving Whitesboro responded to 22 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 68% of all calls.
Mar peaks. Feb dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
75 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2022. $12K cumulative property loss.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 5 | — | |
| 2022 | 27 | — | |
| 2023* | 6 | — | |
| 2024 | 15 | — | |
| 2025 | 22 | +46.7% |
* Well below Whitesboro'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 5 building fires Whitesboro departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 9 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 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 33.3% | |
| 2 | Bathroom, checkroom, lavatory, locker room | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 3 | Ceiling & floor assembly, crawl space b/t stories | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Vehicle area, other | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 5 | Operator/passenger area of transportation equip. | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 6 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 7 | Undetermined | 1 | 11.1% |
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 Whitesboro mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arcing | 4 | 44.4% | |
| 2 | Undetermined | 3 | 33.3% | |
| 3 | Radiated, conducted heat from operating equipment | 1 | 11.1% | |
| 4 | Hot ember or ash | 1 | 11.1% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Whitesboro sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 31,434 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,577 | 45.7 mi | |
| 2017 | Natural | 3,477 | 36.7 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,450 | 47.6 mi | |
| 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,107 | 42.1 mi | |
| 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2,000 | 31.6 mi | |
| 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,950 | 48.2 mi | |
| 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,900 | 45.4 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,600 | 48.1 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,535 | 23.4 mi | |
| 2020 | Natural | 1,518 | 22.2 mi | |
| 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,250 | 25.3 mi | |
| 2014 | Arson/incendiarism | 910 | 49.6 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 Whitesboro. 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.