NFIRS Data Snapshot

Hospital 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 a fifth of those (1,100 fires) were in hospitals. It is estimated that these fires caused 

fewer than five deaths, 25 injuries and $5 million in property loss per year.1

Loss Measures for Hospitals and All Other Medical 

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

Loss Measure Hospital Fires All Other 

Medical Facility Fires

Average Loss:

Fatalities/1,000 Fires 0.4 0.6

Injuries/1,000 Fires 17.3 19.6

Dollar Loss/Fire $6,030 $11,290

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

The average number of fatalities 

per 1,000 hospital fires was 

lower than the same measure 

for all other medical facility 

fires. In addition, the number of 

injuries was also lower than that 

of other medical facilities.2

The majority of hospital fires 

were fires that were confined 

to cooking pots (60 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 10 percent 

of hospital fires, while 3 percent 

were fuel burner or chimney 

fires. Nonconfined fires, generally 

larger structure fires, made up 27 

percent of hospital fires.

Hospital Fires by Incident Type (2012-2014)

Confined

fires

73.0%

Nonconfined 

fires 

27.0%

Cooking

vessel

60.4%

Fuel 

burner or

chimney

2.9%

Trash, 

incinerator

or compactor

9.8% Source: NFIRS 5.0.

Hospital Fires by Time of Alarm (2012-2014)

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

8.0

9.0

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 of

Hospital Fires

2.2 2.6

1.8 2.4 1.9

2.6

4.1

5.4

6.9

5.8

4.4

3.3 3.9 3.3 3.1 2.6

7.6

6.4

5.1

6.4

5.2 5.0

5.8

2.3

Source: NFIRS 5.0.

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

Hospital fires occurred most frequently from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., accounting for 60 percent of the fires. 

The fires peaked between the hour of noon and 1 p.m. This period of high fire incidence coincides with 

lunchtime meal preparations, as cooking is the leading cause of hospital fires.
NFIRS Data Snapshot

Causes of Hospital Fires (2012-2014)

Percent of Hospital Fires

Causes

0.0

0.6

5.0

3.6

2.3

1.8

3.8

0.6

0.0

1.7

1.8

0.1

1.4

0.2

3.9

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0

Cause under investigation

Other unintentional, careless

Equipment malfunction, failure

Exposure

Natural

Other equipment

Other heat

Open flame

Appliances

Electrical malfunction

Cooking

Heating

Smoking

Playing with heat source

Intentional

68.5

6.1

Source: NFIRS 5.0.

Note: Percentages are adjusted for those fires with unknown values of cause. Ten percent of hospital fires had unknown values of cause.

The leading causes of all hospital fires were:

• Cooking (68 percent).

• Electrical malfunction (6 percent).

• Heating (5 percent).

While cooking was the leading reported cause 

of hospital fires overall, it only accounted for 

6 percent of all nonconfined hospital fires. 

Nonconfined fires are larger, more serious fires. 

The leading causes of nonconfined hospital 

fires were:

• Electrical malfunction (22 percent).

• Appliances (13 percent).

• Intentional actions (12 percent).

• Other equipment (11 percent).

Eighty-four percent of all hospital fires were 

limited to the object of origin. Only 3 percent 

extended beyond the room of origin.

Extent of Fire Spread in Hospital Fires (2012-2014)

Percent of Hospital Fires

Fire Spread

0.0

1.7

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0

Beyond building of origin

Limited to building of origin

Limited to floor of origin

Limited to room of origin

Limited to object of origin

1.4

13.1

83.7

Source: NFIRS 5.0.

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

For more information on hospitals, including patient experience and quality of care data, please visit: 

https://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/About/What-Is-HOS.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 to 343. Hospitals are defined by Property Use code 331. Fires are 

defined as a subset of nonresidential building fires in NFIRS by using Incident Types 111 to 123 (excluding Incident Type 112). 

For Incident Types 113 to 118, the Structure Type is 1, 2 or null, and for Incident Types 111 and 120 to 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.