An Overview of the U.S. Fire Problem

(Most Current Statistics 2008)

 

In 2008, U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 1,451,500 fires. These fires caused 3,320 civilian deaths and 16,705 civilian injuries.   In the same year, 103 firefighters were fatally injured while on duty.

 

In 2008, home structure fires caused 83% of the civilian fire deaths and 79% of the civilian fire injuries. Homes include one-and two-family dwellings, apartments, townhouses, row houses, and manufactured homes.

 

Cooking is the leading cause of home

fires and home fire injuries.

Unattended cooking is the leading factor contributing to these fires.

Frying is the leading type of activity associated with cooking fires.

More than half of all cooking fire injuries occurred when people tried to fight the fire

themselves.

 

Smoking has been the leading cause of home fire deaths for decades.

Seventy percent of the home smoking material fire fatalities resulted from fires originating with a) upholstered furniture, or b) mattresses or bedding.  Flammability standards and decreases in smoking have helped reduce these deaths, but the “fire-safe” cigarette could help prevent many more.  Canada and three out of four states in the U.S. have passed legislation requiring cigarettes to be “firesafe.”

Seven percent of home smoking fire fatalities whose smoking materials started

the fire were using medical oxygen.

 

Heating equipment caused 22% of home fire deaths.

Heating equipment ranked second in reported home fires and home fire injuries. Portable and fixed space heaters, including wood stoves, are involved in more fires than central heat and are also more likely than central heating fires to result in death.

 

Electrical distribution or lighting equipment was the third leading cause of home fires. A study by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) found that homes with older wiring face an increased risk of electrical wiring fire.

Intentional fires are the fourth leading cause of home fire deaths. According to FBI statistics, roughly half of the people arrested for arson in recent years were under 18.

 

Almost all U.S. homes have at least one smoke alarm, but 63% of home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes without working smoke alarms.

 

On average, a fire department responded to: A fire every 20 seconds,

an outside fire every 41 seconds, a structure fire every 59 seconds, and a vehicle fire every 122 seconds.

Fire claimed nine lives every day.                                                            (Source N.F.P.A.)