Division of Fire Safety State of New Jersey Department of Community Affairs FIREFIREFIRE INININ NEWNEWNEW JERSEYJERSEYJERSEY 20062006 Cover photograph courtesy of Rodman Meyer DEDICATION We honor the firefighters who selflessly gave their lives to protect the citizens of their communities. Edward Marbet Burlington Township Fire Department Robert “Ockie” Wisting Rio Grande Fire Company # 1 Kevin A. Apuzzio East Franklin Volunteer Fire Department Vincent R. Neglia North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue Department Thomas J. Van Liew New Brunswick Fire Department FIRE IN NEW JERSEY 2006 DIVISION OF FIRE SAFETY Lawrence Petrillo, Director/State Fire Marshal PREPARED BY: Heather Puskar, Supervisor Fire Incident Reporting Unit New Jersey Division of Fire Safety P.O. Box 809 Trenton, New Jersey 08625 (609) 324-7715 CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES FOR 100% PARTICIPATION BURLINGTON CAMDEN CAPE MAY GLOUCESTER HUDSON MERCER PASSAIC SALEM 6 www.nj.gov/dca/dfs TABLE OF CONTENTS NFIRS CONTACT INFORMATION 8 REPORT CONTENTS 9 NEW CATEGORY INFORMATION 10 FAST STATS 11 FIRE DEPARTMENT RESPONSES 12 RESPONSES BY COUNTY 13 PROPERTY USE INCIDENT TOTALS BY COUNTY 34 INCIDENT TYPES WITH PROPERTY/CONTENTS LOSS/VALUE 37 FREQUENCY OF INCIDENT TYPES BY MONTH 40 FIRES BY TYPE 76 STRUCTURE FIRES BY MONTH 76 STRUCTURE FIRES BY DAY OF WEEK 76 FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO IGNITION 77 FIRE SUPPRESSION FACTORS 77 STRUCTURE FIRES BY PROPERTY TYPE 78 RESIDENTIAL FIRES 79 HEAT SOURCES OF RESIDENTIAL FIRES 80 DORMITORY FIRES 82-83 AREA OF FIRE ORIGIN 84 CAUSE OF IGNITION 88 DETECTOR PRESENCE & PERFORMANCE 92 CIVILIAN FIRE FATALITIES 98 CIVILIAN FIRE INJURIES 102 FIREFIGHTER INJURIES & FATALITIES 104 SCHOOL FIRES 107 VEHICLE FIRES 112 HAZARDOUS MATERIALS RELEASES 114 WILDLAND FIRES 116 SPECIAL STUDIES 118 INVESTIGATION UNIT STATISTICAL REPORT 119 FIRE DEPARTMENT PARTICIPATION 120 COUNTY REPORTING PERCENTAGES 139 www.nj.gov/dca/dfs 77 NFIRS CONTACT INFORMATION NFIRS staff is available to assist fire departments with NFIRS training and technical support. Please feel free to contact your NFIRS Field Representative. Heather Puskar, Supervisor (609) 324-7715 [email protected] Frederick Connin, Field Representative (609) 324-7642 [email protected] Fred assists fire departments Statewide. Ronald Svrchek, Field Representative (609) 324-7488 [email protected] Ron assists fire departments in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, and Warren County. Steven Hearn, Field Representative (609) 324-7694 [email protected] Steve assists fire departments in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean, and Salem County. Sonia Salva, Technical Support Specialist (609) 324-7715 [email protected] Sonia receives NFIRS files from fire departments and processes the files into the State and Federal NFIRS databases. Sonia also calculates reporting percentages, population percentages, and manages the State NFIRS database. This report would not be possible without the hard work, support and dedication of the NFIRS staff. 8 www.nj.gov/dca/dfs REPORT CONTENTS The data presented in this report is representative of the incident data that has been submitted to the Division of Fire Safety’s NFIRS Unit. Data received has been processed into the State and Federal databases. Please refer to pages 120 through 138 to see if your fire department has contributed to the information in this report. Based upon incidents received, New Jersey fire departments responded to 397,945 incidents in 2006. Data submission is broken down as follows: Of the 745 fire departments in the state, 719 (96%) submitted data. Note: 25 fire departments submitted less than six months of data. 26 fire departments did not submit any data. The number of fire departments in the state differs from 2005 due to the merging of two departments in Somerset County (East Franklin Twp. Fire Co. and Community Vol. Fire Co. #1). Data in this report does not include military installation fire department data. Military installation fire departments report directly to the Department of Defense. All of the charts included in this report are based on 2006 totals unless otherwise specified. www.nj.gov/dca/dfs 99 NEW CATEGORY ADDED Please note, a new category has been added in some charts called “Information Not Provided By FD”. Our intent with adding this category is to draw attention to the fact that information has not been entered in certain incident report fields. These fields have been left blank by the reporting fire department. If this information had been provided there would be a more accurate picture of the fire problem in New Jersey. The new category can be found in the charts on the following pages: Dormitory Fires Pages 82 to 83 Area Of Fire Origin Pages 84 to 87 Cause Of Ignition Page 88 Detector Presence And Performance Pages 92 to 97 Civilian Fire Fatalities Page 99 Civilian Fire Injuries Pages 102 to 103 Firefighter Injuries And Fatalities Pages 105 to 106 Vehicle Fires Pages 112 to 113 Hazardous Materials Releases Pages 114 to 115 10 www.nj.gov/dca/dfs FAST STATS for 2006 ¾ 5 firefighters died in the line of duty. (Pg. 104) ¾ 75 civilians lost their lives as the result of fire. (Pg. 98) ¾ 920 firefighters were injured responding to emergency incidents. (Pg 105) ¾ 477 civilians were injured as a result of fire. (Pg. 102) ¾ 70 percent of all civilian fire fatalities occurred in residential properties. (Pg. 98) ¾ 46,499 fires were reported. (Pg. 12) ¾ 78 percent of all structure fires involved residential properties. (Pg. 78) ¾ 62 percent of residential fires occurred in 1 or 2 family dwellings. (Pg. 79) ¾ 330 fires were intentionally set in residential properties. (Pg. 88) ¾ 80 percent of all vehicle fires involved passenger vehicles. (Pg. 112) ¾ 12 civilian fire fatalities occurred in passenger vehicles. (Pg. 113) ¾ 111 vehicle fires were intentionally set. (Pg. 113) ¾ 1,667 acres burned. (Pg. 116) ¾ 528 school fires were reported. (Pg. 107) ¾ 12 percent of all incidents were fire incidents. (Pg. 12) ¾ Total reported property loss was $188,944,153.00. (Pg. 39) www.nj.gov/dca/dfs 1111 FIRE DEPARTMENT RESPONSES The following charts represent the number of incidents that fire departments responded to in 2006. Incident Type Summary Weather Other Fire 1,985 3,363 46,499 0% 1% 12% Explosion/Overpressure - No Fire False Alarm 1,868 111,501 0% 28% EMS 89,961 23% Good Intent 39,872 10% Hazardous Condition Service 55,509 47,387 14% 12% Incident types Incident types, which are entered and reported to the Division of Fire Safety’s NFIRS Unit, include structure fires, vehicle fires, trash fires, hazardous materi- als incidents, false alarms, and various special emergencies. Total Incidents 0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 45000 ATLANTIC BERGEN BURLINGTON CAMDEN CAPE MAY CUMBERLAND ESSEX GLOUCESTER HUDSON HUNTERDON MERCER MIDDLESEX MONMOUTH MORRIS OCEAN PASSAIC SALEM SOMERSET SUSSEX UNION WARREN 12 www.nj.gov/dca/dfs Responses by County The following charts show the breakdown of incident type responses by category in each county. Incidents by Time of Day Atlantic County 4 A.M. to 8 A.M. 9% Noon to 4 P.M. 24% 4 P.M. to 8 P.M. 22% Midnight to 4 A.M. 8% 8 P.M. to Midnight 15% 8 A.M. to Noon 22% Incidents by Month Jan 1133 Feb 1075 Atlantic County Mar 1071 Incidents by Day Of Week Apr 1129 Participation Percentage Sun 1952 May 1121 Mon 2059 Jun 1100 Tue 1873 Jul 1209 90% Wed 1901 Aug 1266 Thu 1805 Sep 1332 Fri 2197 Oct 1114 39/43 Sat 1832 Nov 992 Participating FDs Total FDs Incident Total 13619 Dec 1077 Incident Total 13619 Incident Type Responses by Category Atlantic County W eather 34 Service 1080 Other 85 Hazardous Condition 1902 Good Intent 1121 Fire 1614 False Alarm 2790 Explosion/Overpressure-No Fire 55 EMS 4938 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 www.nj.gov/dca/dfs 1313 Incidents by Time of Day Bergen County 4 A.M. to 8 A.M. 8% Noon to 4 P.M. 24% 4 P.M. to 8 P.M. 23% Midnight to 4 A.M. 7% 8 P.M. to Midnight 15% 8 A.M. to Noon 23% Incidents by Month Jan 2950 Feb 2444 Mar 2728 Bergen County Incidents by Day Of Week Apr 2689 Sun 4271 May 2875 Participation Percentage Mon 4906 Jun 3012 Tue 5155 Jul 3222 Wed 5376 Aug 3182 95% Thu 5030 Sep 3485 Fri 5217 Oct 3005 67/70 Sat 4759 Nov 2548 Incident Total 34714 Dec 2574 Participating FDs Total FDs Incident Total 34714 Incident Responses by Category Bergen County Weather 237 Service 4416 Other 120 Hazardous Condition 5255 Good Intent 2549 Fire 3612 False Alarm 14280 Explosion/Overpressure-No Fire 175 EMS 4070 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 14 www.nj.gov/dca/dfs Incidents by Time of Day Burlington County 4 A.M. to 8 A.M. 10% Noon to 4 P.M. 23% 4 P.M. to 8 P.M. 23% Midnight to 4 A.M. 7% 8 P.M. to Midnight 16% 8 A.M. to Noon 21% Incidents by Month Jan 1890 Feb 1823 Incidents by Day Of Week Mar 1916 Burlington County Apr 1979 Participation Percentage Sun 3177 May 1883 Mon 3247 Jun 2443 Tue 3465 Jul 2506 Wed 3404 Aug 2060 100% Thu 3736 Sep 1979 Fri 3945 Oct 2026 50/50 Sat 3414 Nov 1902 Incident Total 24388 Participating FDs Total FDs Dec 1981 Incident Total 24388 Incident Type Responses by Category Burlington County Weather 108 Service 2139 Other 166 Hazardous Condition 4180 Good Intent 3785 Fire 3200 False Alarm 5254 Explosion/Overpressure-No Fire 81 EMS 5475 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 www.nj.gov/dca/dfs 1515 Incidents by Time of Day Camden County 4 A.M.