Union County
Ranks 15th of 21 New Jersey counties.
Higher score = lower civilian fire-death rate.
- Fire-death rate (5-year)
- 0.81
- per 100,000 residents / yr
- Civilian fire deaths
- 24
- 2020-2024 total
- Population
- 594,160
- U.S. Census (2024)
- Public sources
- 2
- 3 metrics used · 4 unavailable
Evidence profile
Each metric below is either drawn from a cited public source or explicitly marked unavailable. Nothing is estimated or invented.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 594,160 | U.S. Census Bureau — Population Estimates Program (PEP), Vintage 2024 (July 1, 2024) (2024) (opens in a new tab) |
| Civilian fire deaths (5-year) | 24 (2020-2024) | New Jersey Department of Health — NJSHAD Injury Mortality Query (Death Certificate Database, Office of Vital Statistics and Registry): fire/flame/smoke deaths by county of residence, 2020–2024 (2024) (opens in a new tab) Civilian fire/flame/smoke deaths (NCHS external-cause matrix, incl. ICD-10 X00-X09, all injury intents) from New Jersey Vital Statistics (NJ DOH), residence-based. |
| Civilian fire deaths per 100,000 (5-yr avg annual) | 0.81 per 100kscored | New Jersey Department of Health — NJSHAD Injury Mortality Query (Death Certificate Database, Office of Vital Statistics and Registry): fire/flame/smoke deaths by county of residence, 2020–2024 (2024) (opens in a new tab) Average annual civilian fire deaths per 100,000, computed from New Jersey Vital Statistics deaths ÷ Census population. |
| Fire/EMS incident responses | Data not publicly available | No county-published incident/response figure found in public sources. |
| Civilian fire injuries | Data not publicly available | Data not publicly available. No authoritative per-county public dataset; NJFIRS is not published as county injury totals and NFPA publishes only national estimates. (investigated: NJ Division of Fire Safety/NJFIRS, NFPA, USFA, county reports) |
| Firefighter injuries | Data not publicly available | Data not publicly available. Only national NFPA survey estimates exist; not published per county. (investigated: NFPA, USFA, county reports) |
| Fire dollar loss | Data not publicly available | Data not publicly available. Not itemized per county in public reports; requires NJFIRS raw data or a records request. (investigated: NJ Division of Fire Safety/NJFIRS, county reports) |
Data confidence
Confidence reflects source authority, how many public metrics exist, and how statistically reliable the outcome data is — not whether this county reports like any other.
- Population (U.S. Census) and civilian fire deaths (New Jersey Department of Health, New Jersey Vital Statistics) are both from authoritative public sources.
- No county-published incident/response figure was found in public sources.
- A substantial five-year fire-death count (24) makes the per-capita rate statistically stable.
Fire-death trend
Published civilian fire deaths by year, 2020-2024. Counts are small, so read alongside Data Confidence.
Civilian fire deaths by year
New Jersey Vital Statistics (NJ DOH) · 2020-2024Civilian fire deaths by year — 2020: 7, 2021: 7, 2022: 5, 2023: 4, 2024: 1.
24 civilian fire deaths over five years. Annual counts are small, so a single event can shift a year materially — this is reflected in Data Confidence.
Related counties
The New Jersey county-equivalents nearest in population — a like-for-like basis for comparison.
Departments serving this county
Department Intelligence — public funding, staffing, readiness, ISO/PPC, grants, and transparency for the fire departments serving this county. Separate from the fire-death score above.
Budget figures are public evidence, not fully normalized spending comparisons. The Basis column states what each figure covers — a “Personnel cost only” line is fully loaded (incl. pension/health) and runs high against a “Fire S&W + OE” appropriation. Only compare budgets whose basis matches.
| Department | Type | Budget | Basis | Revenue | Grants | Staffing | ISO/PPC | Calls | Transparency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabeth Fire Department | Career | $41.2M | Fire S&W + OE | — | $5.1M | 270 | — | — | 57 |
| Plainfield Fire Division | Career | $12.0M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 110 | — | — | 29 |
NJ DCA directory intelligence
County-level rollup of the NJ DCA fire-department directory — self-reported roster survey data, separate from and lower-confidence than the curated profiles above. Roster counts are not on-duty staffing.
Statewide-directory context for Union County from the NJ DCA Annual Fire Department and Agency Directory (2023). These are self-reported survey records — separate from the curated profiles above.
- ✓Department count:consistent with the printed county total (21)
- ✓Career roster total:consistent with the printed county total (885)
- ✓Volunteer roster total:consistent with the printed county total (385)
These self-reported totals match the directory’s own printed county-summary page. That is an internal consistency check, not independent verification, and not on-duty staffing.
Roster totals are self-reported and only sum departments that reported a number (a blank survey field is unknown, never zero). Browse Union County directory records → · Methodology & sources
This public scorecard is free and fully sourced. Fireground Analytics is the premium, department-level product — risk-adjusted benchmarking, grant intelligence, and the operational analysis behind these public indicators.
Explore Fireground Analytics (opens in a new tab)Built from public data. See the methodology and data sources.