In 2025, fire departments serving Passaic County responded to 3,465 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $878K property loss.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories make up about 60% of all calls.
Jan peaks. Nov dips.
13,595 incidents from 2021 through 2025.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,459 | |
| 2022 | 2,278 | |
| 2023 | 2,399 | |
| 2024 | 2,994 | |
| 2025 | 3,465 |
For the 191 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Largest single-incident property losses in Passaic County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 81% of the county's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $878,000 | Clifton | Building fires | Major |
| 2 | $600,000 | Paterson | Building fires | Major |
| 3 | $575,000 | West Milford | Building fires | Major |
| 4 | $252,594 | Clifton | Building fires | Major |
| 5 | $250,000 | Clifton | Building fires | Major |
| 6 | $250,000 | Clifton | Building fires | Major |
| 7 | $200,000 | Paterson | Building fires | Significant |
| 8 | $100,000 | Clifton | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant |
| 9 | $100,000 | Clifton | Building fires | Significant |
| 10 | $80,000 | Paterson | Building or structure weakened or collapsed | Significant |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.
12 cities mapped to FIPS 34031.
| City | Population | |
|---|---|---|
| Paterson | 157,864 | View › |
| Clifton | 89,451 | View › |
| Passaic | 70,048 | View › |
| Wayne | 54,143 | View › |
| West Milford | 24,797 | View › |
| Hawthorne | 19,456 | View › |
| Preakness | 18,591 | View › |
| Little Falls | 14,229 | View › |
| Woodland Park | 13,291 | View › |
| Ringwood | 11,692 | View › |
| Wanaque | 11,217 | View › |
| Pompton Lakes | 11,052 | View › |
19 departments report from this county.
Top 6 fire perimeters by acres burned (state-scoped fallback while we build out per-county polygons).
| # | Name | Year | Agency | Acres |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NJGSR-FY19-RX-Pool 3b | 2019 | FWS | 83 |
| 2 | NJWKR-FY19-RX-Kenely Unit D | 2019 | FWS | 4 |
| 3 | Game Farm | 2024 | FWS | 1 |
| 4 | NJGSR-FY20-WF-Orange Trail WF | 2020 | FWS | 0 |
| 5 | NJWKR-FY20-WF-Papakating Creek WF | 2020 | FWS | 0 |
| 6 | Water Works | 2023 | FWS | 0 |
County-level NFIRS aggregates for 2025, plus 5-year totals across 2021–2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Wildfire risk score (0–100) and Expected Annual Loss come from FEMA's National Risk Index. Drought class is the most recent USDM classification (D0 = abnormally dry through D4 = exceptional drought). Historical fire perimeters are sourced from the NIFC InterAgency Fire Perimeter History.