NFIRS Data Snapshot

Nursing Home Fires (2012-2014)

For each year from 2012 to 2014, an estimated 5,700 medical facility fires were reported to fire departments 

in the United States. Nearly half of those, 2,700 fires, were in nursing homes. It is estimated that these fires 

caused fewer than five deaths, 125 injuries and $13 million in property loss per year.1

Loss Measures for Nursing Homes and All Other Medical 

Facility Fires (Three-Year Average, 2012-2014)

Loss Measure Nursing Home Fires All Other Medical Facility 

Fires

Average Loss:

Fatalities/1,000 fires 0.5 0.6

Injuries/1,000 fires 27.9 11.2

Dollar loss/fire $6,080 $14,170

Source: National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) 5.0.

The average number of fatalities 

per 1,000 nursing home fires 

was only slightly lower than 

the same measure for all other 

medical facility fires. The 

number of injuries, however, 

was more than double that of 

other medical facilities.2

The majority of nursing home 

fires are fires that are confined 

to cooking pots (66 percent). 

Confined fires are smaller fires 

that rarely result in death, serious 

injury or large content losses.3

Fires in trash bins, incinerators or 

compactors composed 5 percent of 

confined fires, while fuel burner 

or chimney fires accounted for 

3 percent. Nonconfined fires, 

generally larger structure fires, 

made up 26 percent of nursing 

home fires.

Nursing Home Fires by Incident Type (2012-2014)

Confined

fires

74.0%

Nonconfined 

fires - 

Building or 

mobile home

26.0%

Cooking

vessel

66.0%

Fuel 

burner or

chimney

2.8%

Trash, 

incinerator

or compactor

5.2% Source: NFIRS 5.0.

Nursing Home Fires by Time of Alarm (2012-2014)

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

11PM-Mid

10PM-11PM

9PM-10PM

1PM-2PM2PM-3PM3PM-4PM4PM-5PM5PM-6PM6PM-7PM7PM-8PM8PM-9PM

12PM-1PM

10AM-11AM

11AM-12PM

9AM-10AM

Mid-1AM

1AM-2AM2AM-3AM3AM-4AM4AM-5AM5AM-6AM6AM-7AM7AM-8AM8AM-9AM

Time of Alarm

Percent

2.6

2.1 1.6 1.6 1.6

2.2

3.5

4.8 5.3 5.8 5.9

5.2

4.4 4.3

3.6

2.9 2.7

5.3 5.2 5.6

6.3 6.1

5.1

6.6

Source: NFIRS 5.0.

Note: Total percentages do not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

Nursing home fires occurred most frequently during the morning as well as the late afternoon and early 

evening hours. The fires peaked between the hours of 8 and 9 a.m. These periods of high fire incidence 

coincide with morning and evening meal preparations.
NFIRS Data Snapshot

The leading causes of all nursing home fires were:

•	 Cooking (72 percent).

•	 Appliances (7 percent).

•	 Heating (5 percent).

•	 Electrical malfunction (4 percent).

While cooking was the leading reported cause of 

nursing home fires overall, it only accounted for 

9 percent of all nonconfined nursing home fires. 

Nonconfined fires are larger, more serious fires. 

The leading causes of nonconfined fires were:

•	 Appliances (28 percent).

•	 Electrical malfunction (16 percent).

•	 Heating (9 percent).

•	 Cooking (9 percent). 

Causes of Nursing Home Fires (2012-2014)

All other

causes

11.4%

Cooking

72.2%

Heating

5.2%

Appliances

7.2%

Electrical

malfunction

4.0%

Source: NFIRS 5.0.

Note:	 Unknown causes are apportioned.

Eighty-three percent of all nursing home fires were limited to the object of origin. Only 3 percent extended 

beyond the room of origin.

Extent of Fire Spread in Nursing Home Fires (2012-2014)

Percent

Fire Spread

0.1

0.7

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0

Beyond building of origin

Limited to building of origin

Limited to floor of origin

Limited to room of origin

Limited to object of origin

1.9

14.1

83.3

Source: NFIRS 5.0.

Note: Total percentages do not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

For more information on nursing homes, including fire safety inspections and quality of care data, please 

visit: https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/About/What-Is-NHC.html.

For additional fire statistics, please visit http://www.usfa.fema.gov/data/statistics/.

Sources: NFIRS 5.0 and the National Fire Protection Association.

Notes:	 1. Medical facilities are defined by Property Use codes 311-343. Nursing homes are defined by Property Use code 311. Fires are defined as a subset of nonresidential building fires in NFIRS by using

Incident Types 111-123 (excluding Incident Type 112). For Incident Types 113-118, the structure type is 1, 2 or null, and for Incident Types 111 and 120-123, the structure type is 1 or 2. Aid Types

3 (mutual aid given) and 4 (automatic aid given) were excluded to avoid double counting of incidents. Estimates of fires are rounded to the nearest 100, deaths to the nearest five, injuries to the

nearest 25, and dollar loss to the nearest million dollars.

	 2. The average loss measures computed from the NFIRS data alone in the table differ from the average loss measures computed from national estimates. Average loss for fatalities and injuries is

computed per 1,000 fires. Average dollar loss is computed per fire and rounded to the nearest $10. The 2012 and 2013 dollar-loss values were adjusted to 2014 dollars.

	 3. In NFIRS, confined fires are defined by Incident Types 113 to 118.