In 2025, fire departments serving Union County responded to 3,146 fire and hazmat incidents — including a single $1.1M property loss.
Gas leak (natural gas or LPG) lead by count. Top five categories make up about 59% of all calls.
Jul peaks. Sep dips.
11,227 incidents from 2021 through 2025.
| Year | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,118 | |
| 2022 | 2,276 | |
| 2023 | 1,632 | |
| 2024 | 3,055 | |
| 2025 | 3,146 |
For the 169 building fires departments responded to in 2025, here's how investigators classified them.
Largest single-incident property losses in Union County during 2025. These 10 fires alone account for 73% of the county's total.
| # | Property loss | City | Type | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,122,383 | SUMMIT | Building fires | Major |
| 2 | $750,000 | UNION | Building fires | Major |
| 3 | $562,752 | UNION | Building fires | Major |
| 4 | $500,000 | UNION | Building fires | Major |
| 5 | $500,000 | UNION | Building fires | Major |
| 6 | $490,000 | UNION | Building fires | Major |
| 7 | $480,612 | UNION | Building fires | Major |
| 8 | $475,000 | PLAINFIELD | Road freight or transport vehicle fire | Major |
| 9 | $458,800 | SUMMIT | Building fires | Major |
| 10 | $250,000 | UNION | Building fires | Major |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples.
12 cities mapped to FIPS 34039.
11 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.