Department Intelligence
Public accountability for fire protection: how much money goes in and where it comes from, staffing availability, readiness, ISO/PPC, grants, and what each department publishes.
This is an additive layer of sourced public evidence — it does not change the county civilian fire-death score or rankings, and it is not a causal finding about safety. Every value is a verified public figure or is explicitly labeled “no public source found.” Missing data is never treated as zero, and never implies misuse of funds.
How NJ departments measure against NFPA 1750:2026
Each department’s governing standard and staffing assessment — sourced where disclosed, honestly marked where not. See the statewide transparency gap.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newark Fire Division | Career | $90.3M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 0 | — | 16,720 | 57 |
| Jersey City Fire Department | Career | $81.1M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 677 | — | 20,000 | 57 |
| Paterson Fire Department | Career | $47.8M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 370 | — | — | 29 |
| Camden Fire Department | Career | $23.0M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 195 | — | 10,000 | 43 |
| Atlantic City Fire Department | Career | $24.2M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 196 | — | — | 43 |
| Hoboken Fire Department | Career | $20.4M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 127 | — | 5,000 | 57 |
| Trenton Fire Department | Career | $29.9M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 226 | — | — | 43 |
| Elizabeth Fire Department | Career | $41.2M | Fire S&W + OE | — | $5.1M | 270 | — | — | 57 |
| Bayonne Fire Department | Career | $20.5M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 178 | — | — | 43 |
| Edison Division of Fire | Combination | $23.6M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 145 | — | — | 57 |
| Woodbridge Fire District No. 7 (Fords) | Fire district | $4.3M | Fire district adopted budget | — | — | — | — | 581 | 43 |
| Toms River Fire District No. 1 | Fire district | $9.0M | Fire district adopted budget | — | — | 0 | 3 | — | 57 |
| Passaic Fire Department | Career | $12.5M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 108 | — | — | 29 |
| North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue (NHRFR) | Career | $70.7M | Member contributions (reconstructed) | — | — | 0 | — | — | 14 |
| Clifton Fire Department | Career | $17.6M | Fire S&W + OE | $315,000 | — | 140 | — | 5,820 | 43 |
| East Orange Fire Department | Career | $22.0M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 168 | — | — | 29 |
| Bloomfield Fire Department | Combination | $11.0M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 72 | 2 | — | 57 |
| Plainfield Fire Division | Career | $12.0M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 110 | — | — | 29 |
| New Brunswick Fire Department | Career | $12.4M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 108 | — | — | 29 |
| Perth Amboy Fire Department | Career | $8.2M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 84 | 3 | — | 57 |
| Cherry Hill Fire District No. 13 | Career | $32.9M | Fire district adopted budget | $27.9M | — | 35 | 2 | 17,500 | 86 |
| Lakewood Fire District No. 1 | Combination | $12.4M | Fire district adopted budget | $12.3M | — | 48 | 3 | — | 43 |
| Brick Township Fire District No. 1 | Fire district | $3.2M | Fire district adopted budget | $2.8M | — | 54 | — | — | 43 |
| Vineland Fire Department | Combination | $3.5M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 39 | — | 2,000 | 57 |
| Montclair Fire Department | Career | $10.8M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 70 | — | 2,522 | 57 |
| Hamilton Township Fire Division | Career | $21.6M | Fire S&W + OE | — | — | 136 | — | 6,959 | 71 |
| Brick Township Fire District No. 2 | Fire district | $2.9M | Fire district adopted budget | $2.8M | — | 55 | — | — | 43 |
| Brick Township Fire District No. 3 | Fire district | $2.8M | Fire district adopted budget | $1.8M | — | 25 | — | — | 43 |
720 fire departments across 21 counties
Identity and roster figures parsed from the NJ DCA Annual Fire Department and Agency Directory (2023) using coordinate-based extraction. These are self-reported roster counts from department surveys — not on-duty staffing — provided here for statewide context, separate from the individually-verified records above. 20 curated records carry their canonical NJ DCA/NJFIRS FDID.
Roster totals reconcile to the directory’s printed county summaries in most counties (career 19/21, volunteer 14/21); the curated records above remain the individually-sourced, budget-verified set.
Status: live · 28 curated records · Methodology & sources →