Fire in the United States 

2005-2014

18th Edition

January 2017
Mission Statement

We provide national leadership to foster a solid foundation for 

our fi re and emergency services stakeholders in prevention, 

preparedness, and response.

U.S. Fire Administration
Table of Contents i

Table of Contents

Executive Summary............................................................................................................. 1

Purpose and Scope............................................................................................................ 1

National Problem............................................................................................................... 2

Regional and State Profiles............................................................................................... 2

Residences and Other Properties ................................................................................... 3

Causes of Fires and Fire Losses ....................................................................................... 3

Residential.................................................................................................................... 3

Nonresidential............................................................................................................. 4

Vehicle........................................................................................................................... 4

Outside......................................................................................................................... 4

Other............................................................................................................................. 4

Race, Age and Gender Characteristics of Victims ......................................................... 4

Conclusions......................................................................................................................... 5

Prevention and Other Resources .................................................................................... 6

Fire in the United States 2005-2014 18th Edition............................................................ 7

Introduction........................................................................................................................ 7

Data Sources ...................................................................................................................... 8

National Fire Incident Reporting System................................................................. 9

National Fire Incident Reporting System Enhancements...................................... 16

National Fire Incident Reporting System Training and Resources....................... 17

Uses of the National Fire Incident Reporting System............................................ 17

U.S. Fire Departments................................................................................................ 18

Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 19

Analytic Issues and Considerations.......................................................................... 19

Representativeness of the Sample.................................................................... 19

National Estimates ............................................................................................... 20

Data Quality .......................................................................................................... 21

Unknown Entries.................................................................................................. 22

Incomplete Loss Reporting................................................................................. 23

Unreported Fires.................................................................................................. 23

Structures Versus Buildings................................................................................ 24

Computing Trends................................................................................................ 25

Rounding ............................................................................................................... 26

Comparing Statistics............................................................................................ 26

Data Collection and Reporting Changes........................................................... 26

Confined Fires....................................................................................................... 27

Structure Fire Cause Methodology.................................................................... 27

Differences Between the National Fire Incident Reporting System Data 

and National Fire Protection Association Survey Data ............................ 31
ii Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Organization of Report ..................................................................................................... 36

The National Fire Problem ................................................................................................. 37

Fires and Losses (10-Year Trends, 2005-2014) ............................................................... 37

Fires Loss Rates (2005-2014)............................................................................................ 40

Types of Properties Where Fires Occur .......................................................................... 42

Fires and Fire Losses by General Property Type (2014)......................................... 42

Fire Casualties and Dollar Loss per Fire by General Property Type (2014)......... 44

Buildings and Other Properties....................................................................................... 45

Buildings....................................................................................................................... 45

Residential Building Fires and Losses ............................................................... 46

All Residential Buildings ...................................................................................... 46

One- and Two-Family Residential Buildings ..................................................... 49

Multifamily Residential Buildings....................................................................... 51

Other Residential Buildings ................................................................................ 54

Nonresidential Buildings..................................................................................... 56

Vehicles and Other Mobile Properties ..................................................................... 58

Outside and Other Properties .................................................................................. 63

Causes of Fires and Losses........................................................................................ 66

Causes of Residential Building Fires.................................................................. 66

Causes of Nonresidential Building Fires ........................................................... 71

Causes of Vehicle Fires ........................................................................................ 72

Causes of Outside Fires....................................................................................... 74

Causes of Other Fires .......................................................................................... 75

Fire Casualties .................................................................................................................... 77

Fire Deaths................................................................................................................... 77

State Profiles......................................................................................................... 77

Age ......................................................................................................................... 81

Gender ................................................................................................................... 83

Race........................................................................................................................ 86

Fire Injuries .................................................................................................................. 86

Age ......................................................................................................................... 86

Gender ................................................................................................................... 89

Acronyms.............................................................................................................................. 93
Executive Summary 1

Executive Summary

Fire departments in the United States responded to nearly 1.3 million fire calls in 2014.1

The U.S. fire problem no longer ranks as the most severe of the industrialized nations, 

yet thousands of Americans die each year, tens of thousands of people are injured, and 

property losses reach billions of dollars. There are huge indirect costs of fire as well, 

including temporary lodging, lost business revenues, medical expenses, psychological 

damage, and others. To put this in context, the annual losses from floods, hurricanes, 

tornadoes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters combined in the U.S. average just a 

fraction of those from fires.2 The public, the media and local governments are generally 

unaware of the magnitude and seriousness of the fire problem and how it affects 

individuals and their families, communities, and the nation.

Purpose and Scope

The National Fire Data Center (NFDC) of the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) periodically 

publishes “Fire in the United States,” a statistical overview of the fires in the U.S. with the 

focus on the latest year in which data were available. This report provides the fire service 

and others with information that motivates corrective action, sets priorities, targets 

specific fire programs, serves as a model for state and local analyses of fire data, and 

provides a baseline for evaluating programs.

This 18th edition covers the 10-year period from 2005 to 2014, with a primary focus on 

2014.3 The report addresses the overall national fire problem. Detailed analyses of the 

residential and nonresidential fire problem, firefighter casualties, and other subsets of 

the national fire problem are not included. These topic-specific analyses are addressed 

as separate, stand-alone publications.

The primary source of data is from the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS). 

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) annual survey results, mortality data from 

the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), data from state fire marshals’ offices or 

their equivalents, population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and inflation adjustments 

from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI) are also used. Because of 

the time it takes for states to submit data to USFA from the thousands of fire departments 

that participate in NFIRS, then obtain corrections and edit the data, and analyze and 

display the results, the publication lags behind the date of data collection. Fortunately, 

the fire problem does not change very rapidly, so the data is usually quite representative 

of the situation in the year of publication as well.

1

NFPA, “Fire Loss in the United States During 2014,” September 2015.

2National Weather Service (NWS), National Hazard Statistics, 2014: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats/

sum14.pdf.

3Only native NFIRS Version 5.0 data was used for NFIRS-based analyses. By Jan. 1, 2009, NFIRS 4.1 data was no 

longer accepted by the system.
2 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

National Problem

Annual deaths from fire in the U.S. were estimated at 12,000 in 1974, the year in which 

the USFA was established.4 At that time, a goal was set for reducing this number by half 

within a generation. This goal was met. By 2012, NFPA estimates of civilian deaths were 

at their lowest level (2,855). While fire deaths are still trending downward, in 2014, NFPA 

estimates of fire deaths were 15 percent higher than they were in 2012.5

Table 1 presents 10-year fire and fire loss rate trends. Fires per million population reached 

a new low in 2013, continuing the downward trend. Dollar loss per capita decreased 27 

percent over the 10 years. Injuries and deaths per million population continued to decline. 

The death rate (deaths per million population) declined 18 percent from 2005 to 2014, 

and it is less than a third of what it was in the late 1970s.6 Nevertheless, the U.S. has a 

fire death rate 1.5 to 2.5 times higher than that of several European nations. Of the 28 

industrial nations examined by the World Fire Statistics Centre, the U.S. ranked as having 

the 12th highest fire death rate.

Table 1. Fire and Fire Loss Rate Trends (2005-2014)

Loss Measure 10-Year Trend (percent)

Fires/Million population -28.5

Deaths/Million population -18.4

Injuries/Million population -14.6

Dollar loss/Capita* -26.6

Sources: NFPA, CPI and U.S. Census Bureau.

*The 2005 to 2013 dollar-loss values were adjusted to 2014 dollars.

Regional and State Profiles

The fire problem varies from region to region and state to state because of variations in 

climate, socioeconomic status, education, demographics and other factors. In 2014, five 

states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia) and the District of 

Columbia had fire death rates that exceeded 20 deaths per million population. Nineteen 

states, mostly situated in the Southeast and Midwest, had death rates between 11 and 20 

per million population. Additionally, 19 states had fire death rates at or below the national 

fire death rate — 10.7 deaths per million population. While some state death rates were 

still high, overall, states have made great progress in lowering the absolute number of fire 

deaths and their deaths per million population.7

4“America Burning.” The Report of the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control, 1973. NFPA changed 

their estimation methodology in the mid-1970s. As a result, by 1977, the estimate of fire deaths had already 

dropped to approximately 7,400 and rose the next year to 7,700. Nevertheless, it is fair to say that the 50 

percent reduction in fire deaths was achieved.

5The NFPA estimated fire deaths to be 3,275 in 2014. For the same year, the NCHS mortality data reflected 

3,428 fire deaths. The NCHS mortality data suggest that fire deaths may be 5 percent higher than the NFPA 

estimate of fire deaths.

6The fire death rate used throughout “Fire in the United States,” however, reflects the number of fire deaths 

(3,428) from the 2014 NCHS mortality data. This death rate is 10.7 fire deaths per million population. In 1979, 

the fire death rate was 34.8 deaths per million population, as cited in USFA’s “America Burning Revisited,” 

1987, p. 15.

7This analysis includes only states where fire death rates were computed. Fire death rates were not computed 

for Hawaii, Idaho, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming due to very small 

numbers of fire deaths (fewer than 10 deaths).
Executive Summary 3

Ten states, mostly largely-populated states, accounted for 48 percent of the national total 

U.S. fire deaths. Unless their fire problems are significantly reduced, the national total will 

be difficult to lower.

Residences and Other Properties

Over the years, there has been little change in the proportion of fires, deaths, injuries and 

dollar loss by the type of property involved. In terms of numbers of reported fires, the 

largest category continued to be outside fires (41 percent) — in fields, vacant lots, trash, 

etc. Residential and nonresidential structure fires together constituted 39 percent of fires, 

with residential structure fires outnumbering nonresidential structure fires by over 3 to 1. 

What may be surprising was the large percentage of vehicle fires. In fact, approximately 1 

out of every 7 fires to which fire departments responded involved a vehicle.

By far, the largest percentage of deaths — 75 percent in 2014 — occurred on residential 

properties, with the majority of these on one- and two-family properties. Vehicles 

accounted for the second largest percentage of fire deaths at 16 percent. Great attention 

is given to large, multiple-death fires in public places, such as hotels, nightclubs and office 

buildings; however, fires that kill 10 or more people are few in number and constitute 

only a small portion of overall fire deaths. Furthermore, public properties are generally 

required by local codes to have built-in fire suppression systems. The area with the largest 

problem is most commonly overlooked — in people’s homes. Prevention efforts continue 

to focus on home fire safety.

Only 4 percent of the 2014 fire deaths occurred in nonresidential commercial and public 

properties. Outside and other miscellaneous fires, including wildfires, were also a small 

factor (5 percent combined) in fire deaths.

The picture was generally similar for fire injuries, with 78 percent of all reported injuries 

occurring on residential properties. The remaining fire injuries were distributed across 

the other property types — nonresidential properties, 7 percent; vehicles, 6 percent; and 

outside and other fires, 9 percent.

The picture changes somewhat for dollar loss. While residential properties were the leading 

property type for dollar loss, nonresidential properties played a considerable role. These 

two general property types accounted for 82 percent of all dollar loss. The proportion of 

dollar loss from outside fires may be understated because the destruction of trees, grass, 

etc., is often given zero value in fire reports if it is not commercial cropland or timber.

Causes of Fires and Fire Losses

Residential

At 50 percent, cooking was the leading cause of residential building fires. Heating caused 

another 13 percent. These percentages (and those that follow) are adjusted, which 

proportionally spreads the unknown causes over the other 15 cause categories.

The two leading causes of residential fatal fires were other unintentional or careless 

actions at 15 percent and smoking at 13 percent. The leading cause of residential fires 

that resulted in injuries was cooking (37 percent). Cooking was, by far, the leading cause of 

fires resulting in dollar loss at 28 percent, followed by electrical malfunction at 12 percent.
4 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Nonresidential

For nonresidential building fires, cooking was the leading cause of fires (29 percent), 

followed by other unintentional or careless actions (10 percent). Electrical malfunction, 

other unintentional or careless actions, and cooking were the leading causes of fires 

resulting in dollar loss in nonresidential buildings, each at 12 percent.

Vehicle

Unintentional actions were the leading cause of fires and fires resulting in dollar loss 

in vehicles (each at 37 percent). The cause of vehicle fires was undetermined after the 

investigation in 23 percent of vehicle fires. Failure of equipment or heat source, at 22 

percent, was the second leading cause of fires resulting in dollar loss.

Outside

Unintentional actions were the leading cause of fires and fires resulting in dollar loss 

in outside fires (43 and 41 percent, respectively). Causes were undetermined after the 

investigation in 26 percent of outside fires and 23 percent of outside fires resulting in 

dollar loss.

Other

Just as with vehicle and outside fires, unintentional actions were the leading cause of 

other fires and fires resulting in dollar loss (46 and 48 percent, respectively). Failure of 

equipment or heat source was the second leading cause of other fires (20 percent) and 

other fires resulting in dollar loss (26 percent).

Race, Age and Gender Characteristics of Victims

Fire losses affect all groups and races, rich and poor, Northern and Southern, urban and 

rural. But the problem is greater for some groups than for others. African-Americans and 

American Indians/ Alaska Natives had much higher fire death rates than the national average. 

African-Americans constituted a large and disproportionate share of total fire deaths, 

accounting for 20 percent of fire deaths in 2014 but only 13 percent of the U.S. population.

Males were 1.5 times more likely to die in fires than females. Female fire deaths in the 

70 and older age group accounted for approximately one-third (34 percent) of female 

fire deaths. Male fire deaths, by contrast, were highest for those adults ages 50 to 69, 

accounting for 39 percent of male fire deaths.

The majority of fire-related injuries occurred in adults ages 20 to 59. This age group 

accounted for 64 percent of the fire injuries in 2014. Males ages 20 to 64 had a higher 

proportion of injuries than females, while older adult females had more injuries than 

older adult males.8

People with limited physical and cognitive abilities, especially older adults, are at a higher 

risk of death from fire than other groups. Older adults accounted for 38 percent of all fire 

deaths and 14 percent of estimated fire injuries in 2014.

8USFA defines older adults as ages 65 and older.
Executive Summary 5

As baby boomers enter retirement age, the demographic profile of the U.S. is expected to 

change dramatically. Over the coming decades, the older population will increase, and a 

corresponding increase in fire deaths and injuries among older adults is likely.

In the past, children ages 4 and younger were also considered to be at a high risk of 

death from fire; however, data indicate that the trend is changing. In 2014, the relative 

risk of children ages 4 and younger dying in a fire was 30 percent less than that of the 

general  population.

Conclusions

This report shows that, overall, the fire problem in the U.S. continues to improve. Ten-year 

fire loss rates are down. It is likely that several factors continue to contribute to these trends:

ĵ Smoke alarms, which have become nearly universal — USFA continues to partner 

with other government agencies and fire service entities to improve and develop new 

smoke alarm technologies.

ĵ Sprinklers, which quickly combat incipient fires, especially in nonresidential and 

multifamily buildings — there are major movements in the U.S. fire service to require or 

facilitate use of sprinklers in all new homes, which could improve the use of residential 

sprinklers in the future.

ĵ Fire codes, which have been strengthened.

ĵ Construction techniques and materials, which have been developed specifically for 

fire prevention.

ĵ Public education at the community, county, state and federal levels.

ĵ Improved firefighter equipment and training.

Even considering these positive trends, the U.S. still has a major fire problem compared 

with some other industrialized nations. The study and implementation of these nations’ 

fire prevention programs that have proved effective in reducing the number of fires and 

deaths should be considered.

Other areas that continue to be of concern:

ĵ The elderly remain at high risk of death from fire.

ĵ The focus for fire injury prevention should be on adults ages 20 to 64 and those 85 

or older.

ĵ African-Americans and American Indians/Alaska Natives remain at a higher risk of 

death from fire than the general population.

ĵ Outside/Wildland fires.

ĵ Data challenges still exist: Many records submitted to NFIRS by participating fire 

departments provide either incomplete or no information in some of the fields. 

Additionally, in preparing this report, it is assumed that participating fire departments 

have reported 100 percent of their fire incidents; however, this is not always the case. 

The completeness of all the information in the NFIRS modules will contribute to the 

refinement and confidence level of future analyses.
6 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

With continued enhancements to NFIRS, data collection continues to improve. If we better 

understand the relative importance of the factors that lessen the fire problem, resources 

can be better targeted to have the most impact.

Prevention and Other Resources

USFA develops and delivers fire prevention and safety education programs in partnership 

with other federal agencies, the fire and emergency response community, the media, and 

safety interest groups. USFA also works with public and private groups to promote and 

improve fire prevention and life safety through research, testing and evaluation.

ĵ USFA’s outreach materials and educational programs are available at https://www.

usfa.fema.gov/prevention/.

ĵ Smoke alarm information on technologies, performance, disposal and storage, training 

bulletins, and public education and outreach materials is available at https://www.

usfa.fema.gov/prevention/technology/smoke_fire_alarms.html.

ĵ Residential sprinkler information on costs and benefits, performance, training 

bulletins, and public education and outreach materials is available at https://www.

usfa.fema.gov/prevention/technology/home_fire_sprinklers.html. USFA’s position 

statement on residential sprinklers is also available at https://www.usfa.fema.gov/

about/sprinklers_position.html.

ĵ USFA sponsors research and conducts studies to support emergency responder 

health and safety and help fire departments prepare for and respond to fire, natural 

disasters, nonfire emergencies, and other threats and vulnerabilities. Information on 

fire department operations, management and safety is available at https://www.usfa.

fema.gov/operations/.

To comment on this specific report, visit: http://apps.usfa.fema.gov/contact/

dataReportEval?reportTitle=Fire%20in%20the%20United%20States%20(2005-2014).
Introduction 7

Fire in the United States 2005-2014

18th Edition

Introduction

In 1973, the president’s Commission on Fire Prevention and Control published “America 

Burning.” This document was the first in-depth discussion of this country’s fire problem, 

the most severe of the industrialized nations. The report prompted a national awareness 

about the depth of the fire problem and the need for prevention efforts. By 1987, when 

a second commission was assembled, much progress had been made toward addressing 

the nation’s fire problem. Among other objectives, “America Burning Revisited” redefined 

the strategies needed to further reduce loss of life and property to fire. As a direct result 

of these efforts and others like them, the U.S.’s fire problem no longer ranks as the 

most severe of the industrialized nations. Nonetheless, the U.S. continues to experience 

fire death rates 1.5 to 2.5 times higher than those of most of its sister nations.9 Many 

Americans are not aware of this nor the nature of the fire problem.

This report is a statistical portrait of fire in the U.S. It is intended for use by a wide 

audience, including the fire service, the media, researchers, industry, government agencies 

and interested citizens. The report focuses on the national fire problem. Emphasized 

topics include the magnitude and trends of the fire problem, the causes of fires, where 

they occur, and who gets hurt.

This document is the 18th major edition of “Fire in the United States” published by USFA. 

It covers the 10-year period from 2005 to 2014 with a primary focus on 2014. The previous 

editions have included:

ĵ First edition, published in 1978, included 1975 and 1976 fire data.

ĵ Second edition, published in 1982, included 1977 and 1978 fire data.

ĵ Third through fifth editions produced as working papers but not published.

ĵ Sixth edition, published in 1987, included 1983 fire data.

ĵ Seventh edition, published in 1990, included 1983 to 1987 fire data.

ĵ Eighth edition, published in 1993, included 1983 to 1990 fire data.

ĵ Ninth edition, published in 1997, included 1985 to 1994 fire data, and it focused on the 

residential/nonresidential fire problem, as well as firefighter casualties.

ĵ Tenth edition, published in 1998, included 1986 to 1995 fire data, and it provided a 

state-by-state profile of fires and an examination of firefighter casualties.

ĵ Eleventh edition, published in 1999, included 1987 to 1996 fire data, and it focused on 

the residential/nonresidential fire problem, as well as firefighter casualties.

9The Geneva Association, “World Fire Statistics,” Bulletin, Number 29, April 2014, https://www.genevaassociation.

org/media/874729/ga2014-wfs29.pdf. As reported, the U.S. had a fire death rate of 1.11 fire deaths per 100,000 

population for 2008 to 2010; the Netherlands had the lowest comparable European fire death rate at 0.46 per 

100,000 population. Switzerland’s fire death rate was lower still at 0.34, but it excluded firefighter deaths.
8 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

ĵ Twelfth edition, published in 2001, included 1989 to 1998 fire data and was the last 

edition to use the NFIRS 4.1 data system. It included analyses of all of the previous 

topics under one cover: residential and nonresidential fire problems, state-by-state 

profiles, and firefighter casualties.

ĵ Thirteenth edition, published in 2004, included 1992 to 2001 fire data and was the first 

edition to include the new NFIRS 5.0 data in the analyses. It included the residential 

and nonresidential fire problem, as well as firefighter casualties.

ĵ Fourteenth edition, published in 2007, included 1995 to 2004 fire data, with a primary 

focus on 2004; for the first time, only native NFIRS 5.0 data were used for NFIRS-based 

analyses. It addressed the overall national fire problem and provided detailed analyses 

of the residential and nonresidential fire problem. Firefighter casualties and other 

subsets of the national fire problem were not included.

ĵ Fifteenth edition, published in 2009, covered the five-year period of 2003 to 2007, 

with a primary focus on 2007. As in the 14th edition, only native NFIRS 5.0 data were 

used for NFIRS-based analyses.10 This report addressed only the overall national fire 

problem. Detailed analyses of the residential and nonresidential fire problem firefighter 

casualties, and other subsets of the national fire problem were addressed as separate, 

stand-alone publications.

ĵ Sixteenth edition, published in 2013, was entirely web-based and covered the five-year 

period of 2007 to 2011, with a primary focus on 2011. The document was renamed 

“Data Sources and Methodology Documentation,” with all of the data presented in 

an Excel file.

ĵ Seventeenth edition, published in 2016, covered the 10-year period of 2004 to 2013, 

with a primary focus on 2013. This report addressed the overall national fire problem 

and was published as a PDF document.

Data Sources

The USFA’s data analyses are based primarily on the NFIRS data, but use other sources 

as well. Summary estimates for fires, deaths, injuries and dollar loss are from the NFPA’s 

annual survey of fire departments.11 Other data sources used by USFA include 2014 NCHS 

mortality data12 as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions 

through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program, resident population estimates from the 

U.S. Census Bureau, inflation adjustments from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI, and 

state statistics from state fire marshals’ offices or their equivalents. Because the NCHS 

10Previous editions of “Fire in the United States” presented 10-year trends. As many of the trends are based on 

national estimates that use the proportion of native NFIRS 5.0 data to allocate estimated fires and fire losses, 

trends in this edition are limited to 2003 and the years after when the proportion of native NFIRS 5.0 data 

exceeded 80 percent of the submitted data.

11The NFPA summary estimates are used for the overall U.S. fire losses; for fire losses from vehicle, outside and 

other fires; and as the basis for estimates of residential and nonresidential building fires. The alternative approach 

for these summary estimates is to use the relative percentage of fires (or other loss measures) from NFIRS and 

scale up (multiply by) to the NFPA estimate of total fires. The results would be somewhat different from those 

based on the NFPA subtotals. These differences are discussed in the section “Differences Between National Fire 

Incident Reporting System Data and National Fire Protection Association Survey Data.” Better estimates of fire 

loss measures will not be available from NFIRS until a more robust method of estimation is developed.

12The NCHS data provides additional details not available from the NFPA survey: state of fire death occurrence, 

age, gender and race.
Data Sources 9

mortality data is based on a census or enumeration of deaths based on death certificates 

rather than an estimate, it is used as the primary source for the computation of fire death 

rates and relative risk. The most current year available for the NCHS mortality data is 

2014. Please note that for consistency, national trend data is based on the NFPA survey 

estimates, not the NCHS mortality data.

The USFA gratefully acknowledges the use of the data and information provided by these 

groups. Data sources are cited for each graph and table.

National Fire Incident Reporting System

NFIRS was established in 1975 as one of the first programs of the National Fire Prevention 

and Control Administration, which later became the USFA. The basic concept of NFIRS has 

not changed since the system’s inception. All states and all fire departments within them 

have been invited to participate on a voluntary basis. Participating fire departments collect 

a common core of information on an incident and any casualties that ensue by using a 

common set of definitions. In very few departments, the data may be written by hand 

on paper forms; however, the majority of the data are collected electronically through 

third-party software, the NFIRS Data Entry Tool (DET) or the Data Entry Browser Interface 

(DEBI), or the reporting department’s own system. Local agencies forward the completed 

NFIRS modules to the state agency responsible for NFIRS data. The state agency combines 

the information with data from other fire departments into a statewide database and then 

transmits the data to the NFDC at the USFA. Data on individual incidents and casualties 

are preserved incident by incident at local, state and national levels. Once limited to fire 

incidents only, NFIRS encompasses all incidents to which the fire department responds: 

fire, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), hazardous materials or hazmat, and the like.

From an initial six states in 1976, NFIRS has grown in both participation and use. Over 

the life of the system, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and more than 40 major 

metropolitan areas have reported to NFIRS. More than 30,000 fire departments have 

been assigned participating NFIRS fire department identification (FDID) numbers by their 

states. Nearly 1 million fire incident records and over 22 million nonfire incident records 

are added to the database each year. NFIRS is the world’s largest collection of incidents 

to which fire departments respond.

Figure 1 shows the growth in the number of fire departments participating in NFIRS over 

the last 35 years from 1980 to 2014.13 Between 1985 and 1999, the level of participation 

remained relatively constant: A few states came in or left the system each year, and at 

least 39 states reported to NFIRS. Most years also included participation from the District 

of Columbia. The number of fire departments participating within the states remained 

relatively constant as well, with a slight dip in participation during the system migration 

from Version 4.1 to 5.0 in 1999. In 2000, the number of states increased to 43, and fire 

department participation began to bounce back from the Version 5.0 transition. State 

and fire department participation began steadily increasing. In 2003, NFIRS reached 

a milestone with participation by all 50 states. The following year, NFIRS achieved 

another significant goal: NFIRS not only achieved the national goal of 100 percent state 

participation, including the District of Columbia, but also for the first time, the Native 

American tribal authorities submitted data.

13Figure 1 reflects fire departments that reported fire incidents (includes mutual aid and automatic aid given); 

all other types of incidents were excluded from this figure.
10 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

NFIRS continued to grow and mature. By 2007, a new level of participation had been 

achieved: all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Native American tribal authorities, 

Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico all participated in NFIRS for a total of 54 state, 

district, tribal authority, and commonwealth entities (Table 2). However, the Northern 

Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico are no longer reporting incident data to NFIRS.

From 2009 to 2014, the level of participation remained relatively constant and data was 

submitted by the District of Columbia, the Native American tribal authorities, and all 

50 states.14 In 2014, the most recent year of data available, 20,527 fire departments 

reported fire incidents to NFIRS. Across participating entities, 68 percent of the estimated 

fire departments in the U.S. reported fire incidents to NFIRS in 2014.15 With two-thirds 

of all fire departments nationwide reporting fire incidents to NFIRS 5.0, the reporting 

departments represent a very large dataset that enables USFA to make reasonable 

estimates of various facets of the fire problem. Although some states do require their 

departments to participate in the state system, participation in NFIRS is voluntary. 

However, if a fire department is a recipient of an Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG), 

participation is required.16

Figure 1. National Fire Incident Reporting System Fire Department Participation 

(1980-2014, fire incidents only) Number of Participating Fire Departments

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

19801981198219831984198519861987198819891990199119921993199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014

Source: NFIRS.

Notes: 1. 1999-2008 includes participation from NFIRS 4.1 and NFIRS 5.0.; 2009 and later only includes participation from NFIRS 5.0.

	 2.	 Includes mutual and automatic aid given fire incidents.

14For 2013, Wyoming data was not included on the NFIRS Public Data Release (PDR) file, as the data was 

submitted by the state past the cutoff date set by USFA’s NFDC; however, the data resides in the NFIRS 

production database and Enterprise Data Warehouse.

15For 2014, NFPA estimated that there were 29,980 fire departments in the U.S. Source: NFPA, U.S. Fire 

Department Profile 2014, January 2016, http://www.nfpa.org/research/reports-and-statistics/the-fire-service/

administration/us-fire-department-profile. 16From the fiscal year 2014 AFG Program Funding Opportunity Announcement, while NFIRS reporting is strongly 

encouraged, NFIRS reporting is not a requirement to apply for, or be awarded, a grant within the AFG Program. 

However, any fire-based organization(s) that receives an AFG must commence reporting to NFIRS prior to the 

beginning of the period of performance. In order to be compliant and close out the grant, the grantee may be 

asked by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide proof of compliance in reporting to NFIRS. 

Any grantee that stops reporting to NFIRS during the grant’s period of performance is subject to having the 

award(s) modified or withdrawn. See https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1414694732070-8097e2d2c

bcbda66354f439085c5ff55/AFG_FY14_FOA.pdf.
Data Sources 11

Table 2. States Reporting Fire Incidents to the National Fire Incident Reporting 

System (2005-2014)

State 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Alabama X X X X X X X X X X

Alaska X X X X X X X X X X

Arizona X X X X X X X X X X

Arkansas X X X X X X X X X X

California X X X X X X X X X X

Colorado X X X X X X X X X X

Connecticut X X X X X X X X X X

Delaware X X X X X X X X X X

District of 

Columbia X X X X X X X X

Florida X X X X X X X X X X

Georgia X X X X X X X X X X

Hawaii X X X X X X X X X X

Idaho X X X X X X X X X X

Illinois X X X X X X X X X X

Indiana X X X X X X X X X X

Iowa X X X X X X X X X X

Kansas X X X X X X X X X X

Kentucky X X X X X X X X X X

Louisiana X X X X X X X X X X

Maine X X X X X X X X X X

Maryland X X X X X X X X X X

Massachusetts X X X X X X X X X X

Michigan X X X X X X X X X X

Minnesota X X X X X X X X X X

Mississippi X X X X X X X X X X

Missouri X X X X X X X X X X

Montana X X X X X X X X X X

Nebraska X X X X X X X X X X

Nevada X X X X X X X X X X

New 

Hampshire X X X X X X X X X X

New Jersey X X X X X X X X X X

New Mexico X X X X X X X X X X

New York X X X X X X X X X X

North Carolina X X X X X X X X X X

North Dakota X X X X X X X X X X

Ohio X X X X X X X X X X

Oklahoma X X X X X X X X X X
12 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Table 2. States Reporting Fire Incidents to the National Fire Incident Reporting 

System (2005-2014) — Continued

State 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Oregon X X X X X X X X X X

Pennsylvania X X X X X X X X X X

Rhode Island X X X X X X X X X

South Carolina X X X X X X X X X X

South Dakota X X X X X X X X X X

Tennessee X X X X X X X X X X

Texas X X X X X X X X X X

Utah X X X X X X X X X X

Vermont X X X X X X X X X X

Virginia X X X X X X X X X X

Washington X X X X X X X X X X

West Virginia X X X X X X X X X X

Wisconsin X X X X X X X X X X

Wyoming X X X X X X X X X X

Native 

American X X X X X X X X X X

Northern 

Mariana 

Islands

X X

Puerto Rico X X X * *

Total 52 53 54 51 52 52 52 52 52 52

Source: NFIRS.

Notes:	 For 2005-2008, includes fire incidents submitted in both NFIRS Versions 4.1 and 5.0. Beginning in 2009, includes only fire

incidents submitted in NFIRS Version 5.0.

*Puerto Rico submitted fire incident data to NFIRS in 2008-2009, but the data was excluded from all fire data analyses due to

data quality issues.
Data Sources 13

Table 3. Fire Departments Reporting Fire Incidents to the National Fire Incident 

Reporting System in 2014

State

No. of Fire 

Departments 

in State

No. of Reporting 

Fire Departments 

(NFIRS 5.0)

Percentage of 

Reporting Fire 

Departments 

(NFIRS 5.0)

Alabama 1,230 321 26

Alaska 235 133 57

Arizona 314 91 29

Arkansas 976 725 74

California 1,105 464 42

Colorado 385 211 55

Connecticut 260 217 83

Delaware 61 60 98

District of Columbia 1 1 100

Florida 573 417 73

Georgia 626 322 51

Hawaii 6 4 67

Idaho 246 151 61

Illinois 1,203 1,042 87

Indiana 829 367 44

Iowa 848 562 66

Kansas 577 456 79

Kentucky 852 570 67

Louisiana 556 385 69

Maine 405 183 45

Maryland 419 256 61

Massachusetts 366 331 90

Michigan 1,306 746 57

Minnesota 784 710 91

Mississippi 752 597 79

Missouri 891 436 49

Montana 392 159 41

Nebraska 476 169 36

Nevada 165 40 24

New Hampshire 232 195 84

New Jersey 740 623 84

New Mexico 362 329 91

New York 1,786 1,101 62

North Carolina 1,257 1,081 86

North Dakota 372 143 38
14 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Table 3. Fire Departments Reporting Fire Incidents to the National Fire Incident 

Reporting System in 2014 — Continued

State

No. of Fire 

Departments 

in State

No. of Reporting 

Fire Departments 

(NFIRS 5.0)

Percentage of 

Reporting Fire 

Departments 

(NFIRS 5.0)

Ohio 1,208 1,162 96

Oklahoma 926 358 39

Oregon 316 231 73

Pennsylvania 2,287 823 36

Rhode Island 76 38 50

South Carolina 435 382 88

South Dakota 337 175 52

Tennessee 728 585 80

Texas 2,025 918 45

Utah 273 134 49

Vermont 236 171 72

Virginia 652 483 74

Washington 487 257 53

West Virginia 442 427 97

Wisconsin 850 718 84

Wyoming 145 64 44

Native American 100 3 3

Total 33,111* 20,527 62

Sources:	 NFIRS (2014) and state fire marshal’s offices or equivalent organizations (September 2013).

Notes:	 Additionally, there are 672 Department of Defense fire departments in the U.S. These departments are not included in

the totals here and do not report their fire incident data to NFIRS.

*This total differs from the 2014 NFPA estimate of 29,980 fire departments. The NFPA estimate is the official estimate used by

USFA as its benchmark for the National Fire Department Registry. 

Corresponding to increased participation, the numbers of fires, deaths and injuries, as well 

as estimates of dollar loss, reported to NFIRS have also grown; an estimated 68 percent 

of all U.S. fires to which fire departments responded in 2014 were captured in NFIRS.17

There are, of course, many problems in assembling a real-world database, and NFIRS is 

no exception. Although NFIRS does not represent 100 percent of incidents reported to fire 

departments each year, the enormous dataset and strong efforts by the fire service result 

in a huge amount of useful information. Because of advances in computer technology 

and data collection techniques over the past 40 years and improvements suggested by 

participants, NFIRS has been revised periodically. The latest revision, NFIRS 5.0, became 

operational in January 1999.

NFIRS 5.0 captures information on all incidents, not just fires, to which a fire department 

responds. NFIRS 5.0 provides 11 modules that recognize the increasingly diverse activities 

of fire departments today. These modules, together, contain 567 data elements or fields.

17This percentage excludes mutual-aid fire incidents to avoid double counting of fires.
Data Sources 15

The Basic Module is the main module, which is completed for every incident. The other 

modules are filled out, when appropriate, to provide additional information on an incident. 

All 11 modules are listed below:

Module Description

Basic Module General information for each incident

Fire Module Fire incident information 

Structure Fire Module Information on structure fires

Civilian Fire Casualty Module Fire-related injuries or deaths to civilians

Fire Service Casualty Module Injuries or deaths to firefighters

EMS Module Medical incidents

Hazardous Materials Module Hazardous materials incidents

Wildland Fire Module Wildland or vegetation fires

Apparatus/Resources Module Apparatus-specific information

Personnel Module Personnel associated with apparatus 

Arson Module Intentionally-set fire information

Data from the modules are grouped together each calendar year to create the Public Data 

Release (PDR) files in delimited text (.txt) format, which are then released annually into 

the public domain. For NFIRS data submitted prior to 2012, the PDR files were released in 

dBASE (.dbf) format. The Apparatus/ Resources and Personnel Modules are excluded from 

the PDR because they are intended for local fire department use, and the PDR dataset’s 

main utility is intended for national analyses. The PDR files consist of a subset of the 

data fields contained within the NFIRS national production database. For example, data 

elements with sensitive or identifying information are removed, as are data elements 

that are wholly used for maintenance or production purposes. The data structure of the 

PDR files has been considerably simplified from the production database’s schema for 

ease of use. The PDR files from 2004 to 2013 only include fire and hazmat incidents and 

their related data tables (available on CD). Prior to 2004, all incidents were included in the 

PDR files. Beginning with the 2014 NFIRS data, both the fire and hazmat incident PDR file 

(CD) and the full, all-incident PDR file (DVD) are available upon request from USFA’s NFDC.

In its basic form, the NFIRS PDR files have a relational data structure where data from each 

incident module is represented by a row in a data table. The primary tables (basic incident 

and incident address) contain most of the Basic Module data. There is exactly one record in 

the basic incident table for every incident reported to NFIRS. All other modules, represented 

by data tables with similar names (fire incident, civilian casualties, etc.), have records that 

are linked to the basic incident table through unique incident identification key fields (e.g., 

STATE, FDID, INC_DATE, INC_NO and EXP_NO). Some module data are split across several 

tables (e.g., basic incident, incident address, and basic aid tables); one table (fire incident) 

combines data from two modules (i.e., Fire Module and Structure Fire Module). Some tables, 

such as fire incident, will only have one record for each relevant incident in the basic incident 

table, while tables such as civilian casualty may have several records linked to a single 

incident in the case where multiple injuries and/or deaths occur in the same incident.

State participation is voluntary, and each state specifies NFIRS reporting requirements for 

its fire departments. States have the flexibility to adapt their state reporting systems to 

their specific needs. As a result, the design of a state’s data collection system varies from 
16 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

state to state. NFIRS 5.0 was designed so that data from state systems can be converted 

to a single format that is used at the national level to aggregate and store NFIRS data.

All data in the system, regardless of the entry mechanism, are in NFIRS 5.0 format; non-NFIRS 

5.0 data are converted to the 5.0 format. The proportion of native 5.0 data has steadily 

increased since the introduction of NFIRS 5.0 in 1999 (Table 4). This proportion rose to 99 

percent in the 2008 data. Since Jan. 1, 2009, NFIRS 4.1 data have no longer been accepted 

by the system. Prior to 2009, NFIRS 4.1 data in its converted form had been accepted by the 

system; however, USFA only used native 5.0 data in its NFIRS-based analyses.

Table 4. National Fire Incident Reporting System Fire Incident Data Reporting by 

Version (percent)

Year NFIRS 4.1

(converted to 5.0 format)

Native 

NFIRS 5.0

1999 92% 8%

2000 77% 23%

2001 48% 52%

2002 31% 69%

2003 19% 81%

2004 11% 89%

2005 5% 95%

2006 5% 95%

2007 2% 98%

2008 1% 99%

2009 0% 100%

Source: NFIRS.

National Fire Incident Reporting System Enhancements

Under the USFA Reauthorization Act of 2008, the U.S. Congress authorized and funded 

USFA to develop enhancements to NFIRS. The upgrades to the system began in October 

2008 and included a simplified NFIRS web-based reporting interface and a data warehouse 

for generating output reports for use in analyses. These improvements make reporting 

and accessing the NFIRS data much easier for fire departments.

In July 2010, USFA completed and deployed the new web-based DET. The DEBI is a 

one-purpose tool for use by the fire service to document incident information within the 

NFIRS. While the functionality is the same as the NFIRS client DET that has been available 

for use for many years, the DEBI allows entry of incidents using a standard web browser, 

eliminating the need to download, install and configure client software.

The development of a flexible NFIRS data warehouse with comprehensive data-mining 

capabilities was completed in July 2011, but technical problems with the data and 

environment have led to extensive delays in deployment. The data warehouse will allow 

NFIRS users to access and report on nationally collected data with significantly increased 

functionality over the current report generation tool. The data have been transformed 

into a custom schema that greatly increases the speed of report generation and data 
Data Sources 17

access. NFIRS users will be able to generate reports using data from other departments 

and states, which was not previously possible. Deployment of the new reporting solution 

to NFIRS state program managers began, in a phased approach, on July 1, 2016.

National Fire Incident Reporting System Training and Resources

USFA offers several free classroom and online NFIRS training courses for fire departments, 

including the “Introduction to NFIRS 5.0” (W0497) course, “National Fire Incident Reporting 

System 5.0 Self-Study” (Q0494), the “National Fire Incident Reporting System: Program 

Management” (NFIRS: PM) (R0491) course, and the “NFIRS Program Management--Data 

Analysis and Problem-Solving Techniques” (NFIRS PM--DAPST) (R0495) course. The Intro to 

NFIRS 5.0 course teaches students how to use standardized forms to achieve uniformity 

in their incident and activity reporting. This training program is designed specifically to 

support local fire service organizations, and it will assist them in providing data to their 

management and to decision-makers, as well as to their state uniform fire reporting 

system. The NFIRS 5.0 Self-Study (online) course provides an overview of the data 

collection system, its modules, and data conversion issues. The NFIRS: PM course enables 

participants to successfully promote, support and manage NFIRS data collection. The 

NFIRS PM--DAPST course is designed for experienced NFIRS users who need enhanced 

fire incident analysis and reporting skills. For more information on NFIRS training courses, 

visit https://www.usfa.fema.gov/data/nfirs/support/training.html.

Periodically, USFA issues NFIRSGrams, which are short bulletins that provide coding 

help to fire department personnel who use NFIRS. NFIRSGrams address frequently 

asked questions (FAQs) and common mistakes made when completing incident forms. 

Examples include “Documenting casualties on an NFIRS report,” “Coding an electronic 

cigarette fire,” and “Calculating fire loss.” In addition to NFIRSGrams, the “NFIRS 5.0 Coding 

Questions Manual” includes instructions on how to code NFIRS 5.0 incident reports in a 

question-and-answer format. NFIRSGrams and the “NFIRS 5.0 Coding Questions Manual” 

are available at https://www.usfa.fema.gov/data/nfirs/support/training.html. 

Furthermore, USFA’s NFIRS Support Center offers a consolidated national help desk 

to provide technical support to fire departments and NFIRS state program managers 

regarding all aspects of NFIRS. Support Center staff may be reached by email at FEMANFIRSHELP@fema.dhs.gov or by calling toll free at 888-382-3827. Questions about or 

requests for NFIRS technical assistance can also be submitted online: https://apps.usfa.

fema.gov/contact/ntsc/.

Uses of the National Fire Incident Reporting System

NFIRS data is used extensively at all levels of government for major fire protection 

decisions. At the local level, incident and casualty information is used for setting priorities 

and targeting resources. The data collected are particularly useful for designing fire 

prevention and educational programs and EMS-related activities specifically suited to 

the real emergency problems that local communities face.

At the state level, NFIRS is used in many capacities. One valuable contribution is that 

some state legislatures use this data to justify budgets and to pass important bills on firerelated issues, such as sprinklers, fireworks and arson. Many federal agencies, in addition 

to USFA, make use of NFIRS data. NFIRS data is used, for example, by the Consumer 

Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to identify problem products and to monitor corrective 

actions. The Department of Transportation uses NFIRS data to identify fire problems in 

automobiles, which has resulted in mandated recalls. The Department of Housing and 
18 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Urban Development uses NFIRS to evaluate the safety of manufactured housing (mobile 

homes). USFA uses the data to design prevention programs, to prioritize firefighter safety 

initiatives, to assist in the development of training courses at the National Fire Academy, 

and to serve a host of other purposes. 

In addition to government agencies, NFIRS data are also used for research and prevention 

programs by a variety of other entities including nonprofit fire-related organizations, colleges 

and universities, courts and law firms, and the media. For example, since October 2014, the 

American Red Cross (ARC) is linking NFIRS residential fire data to information gathered from 

their disaster response teams to identify neighborhoods that have a high fire risk, and then 

installing smoke alarms in homes within these communities as part of the nationwide Home 

Fire Campaign. By August 2016, ARC and its partners had saved at least 102 lives as part of 

this campaign to reduce the number of home fire deaths and injuries.18

Thousands of fire departments, scores of states, and hundreds of industries have used 

the data. The potential for even greater use remains. The USFA report, “Uses of NFIRS: the 

many uses of the National Fire Incident Reporting System,” further describes the uses of 

the data and is available online at http://usfa.kohalibrary.com/app/work/159371.

U.S. Fire Departments

The number of fire departments in each state (Table 3) was provided by each state’s NFIRS 

program manager. USFA also maintains a database of fire departments. USFA established 

the National Fire Department Census and its subsequent database in the fall of 2001 when 

USFA launched a nationwide campaign for voluntary registration of fire departments.

From 2001 to 2016, the number of registered fire departments grew from about 16,000 to 

over 27,000. Because the census is cumulative over time, it does not reflect a typical census in 

the way that the data are collected. As a result, in the fall of 2016, USFA renamed the census 

to the National Fire Department Registry. As of January 2017, there were 27,192 registered 

fire departments, about 91 percent of the estimated number of U.S. fire departments. The 

NFPA estimated that there were 29,980 fire departments in the U.S. in 2014.

The database provides a current directory of registered fire departments and includes 

basic information, such as addresses, department types, website addresses (if applicable), 

number of fire department personnel, and number of stations. Population-protected and 

area-protected data are also collected. However, in previous analyses of the populationprotected field, it was determined that the registered fire departments reported protecting 

a population two times that of the U.S. population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Similar results were seen for the area protected. The National Fire Department Registry 

also collects information on specialized services that is released only in summary format. 

The database is intended for use by the fire protection and prevention communities, 

allied professions, the general public, and USFA. USFA uses the database to conduct 

special studies, guide program decision-making, and improve direct communication with 

individual fire departments. For more information about the National Fire Department 

Registry or to download the list of registered fire departments, visit https://apps.usfa.

fema.gov/registry/.

18The ARC, “Red Cross and Partners Save 102 Lives Across the U.S. Through Home Fire Campaign,” August 3, 

2016, is available at http://www.redcross.org/news/article/American-Red-Cross-and-Partners-Save-102-LivesAcross-the-Country-Through-Home-Fire-Campaign.
Methodology 19

Methodology

An attempt has been made to keep the data presentation and analysis as straightforward 

as possible. It is also the desire of USFA to make the data analyses widely accessible to 

many different users, so it avoids unnecessarily complex methodology. The term fire 

casualties refers to deaths and injuries; the term fire losses collectively includes fire 

casualties and dollar loss.

Analytic Issues and Considerations

There are several long-standing issues regarding how to analyze NFIRS data when it is 

neither as complete nor as accurate as desired. Other analytic issues are the result of 

changes in definitions and data collection procedures from NFIRS 4.1 to NFIRS 5.0. The 

sections that follow discuss how the analyses address these and other issues.

Moreover, USFA developed the “National Fire Incident Reporting System Version 5.0 Fire 

Data Analysis Guidelines and Issues” document to address some of these issues and 

discuss analytic considerations and methods of analyzing NFIRS fire incident data.19 Topics 

include the NFIRS 5.0 data structure, general quality assurance issues, and definitions and 

parameters of common fire analyses (e.g., residential building fires or casualties), including 

the methodology for determining structure fire causes. The methods, techniques and 

considerations discussed are those used by USFA analysts, and they do not necessarily 

reflect methods, techniques and considerations used by fire data analysts from other 

agencies and organizations. NFIRS data partners may (and do) employ their own methods 

for analyzing the data and may make differing assumptions when encountering data issues.

Representativeness of the Sample

The percentage of fire departments participating in NFIRS varies from state to state, with 

some states not participating at all in some years. To the best that USFA can determine, 

the distribution of participants is reasonably representative of the entire nation, even 

though the sample is not random. The dataset is so large — on average about 69 percent 

of all fires — and reasonably distributed geographically and by size of community that it 

is used as input to developing national estimates.

In a joint study effort, USFA and NFPA examined the biases in NFIRS participation, 

specifically whether the fire experience of NFIRS-reporting departments differed 

systematically from the fire experience of other nonreporting departments within the 

same population. Results based on data from 1997 and 2002 indicated that there were 

differences in total fire loss estimates derived from NFIRS reporting departments and 

non-NFIRS reporting departments; however, the degree of difference was not great 

enough to merit adjusting current scaling methodologies. Thus, USFA and fire data 

analysts from other organizations continue to use the long-standing methodology of 

scaling NFIRS estimates with NFPA total fire estimates.

In the fall of 2008, as required by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), USFA 

undertook a study of the NFIRS dataset to examine the potential bias in NFIRS due to fire 

department nonresponse. As a result, the USFA completed an analysis to identify fire 

departments that do not participate in NFIRS, characteristics of these departments, and 

19The “National Fire Incident Reporting System Version 5.0 Fire Data Analysis Guidelines and Issues,” July 2011, 

is available at https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/nfirs/nfirs_data_analysis_guidelines_issues.pdf.
20 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

whether their nonresponse impacted the representativeness of NFIRS. Undertaken on 

a regional and county basis, the analysis provided insight into what, if any, adjustments 

could be made to minimize the impact of possible reporting bias on the fire loss estimates. 

States of particular concern for nonreporting were located in the Northeastern and 

Western regions of the country, where the average rates of reporting were approximately 

72 percent for each of these regions. By contrast, the Midwestern region had an estimated 

87 percent reporting rate.

In 2011, USFA also completed a second NFIRS representativeness study as required 

by OMB. For this study, USFA compared the NFIRS database to NFPA proprietary data 

to determine the percentage of departments responding to the NFPA survey that also 

reported fires to NFIRS. It was determined that 87 percent of the 2009 NFPA survey 

respondents also reported fire incidents to NFIRS from 2007 to 2009. In 2009 alone, more 

than 18,000 additional departments (i.e., in addition to those responding to the NFPA 

survey) reported fires to NFIRS.

It is important to note that USFA, along with other federal agencies, does not use NFIRS 

data to derive state-level fire estimates. NFIRS data is used to show the fire problem at 

the national level. Because the findings in USFA’s NFIRS representativeness studies show 

high reporting rates, fire departments across the country appear to be well-represented 

in NFIRS.

Moreover, most of the NFIRS data exhibit stability from one year to the next, without 

radical changes. Results based on the full dataset are generally similar to those based on 

part of the data, another indication of data reliability. Although improvements could be 

made — the individual incident reports could and should be filled out more completely 

and more accurately than they are today (as can be said about most real-world data 

collections as large as NFIRS), and all participating departments should have the same 

reporting requirements — the overall portrayal is a reasonably accurate description of 

the fire situation in the U.S.

National Estimates

National estimates are estimates of the number of fire losses (i.e., fires, deaths, injuries 

and dollar loss) associated with a subset of the fire data. High-level summarized national 

estimates of the numbers for fires, deaths, injuries and dollar loss are based on NFPA’s 

annual Survey of Fire Departments for U.S. Fire Experience.20 With the exception of 

the NFPA estimates for total fires, structure (i.e., residential and nonresidential) fires, 

vehicle, outside and other fires, all other estimates are scaled-up national estimates 

or percentages, not just the raw totals from NFIRS. Because the NFIRS 5.0 data is not 

based on a statistically selected sample and does not represent a “complete” census 

of fire incidents, the raw counts of NFIRS data must be scaled up to national estimates. 

These estimates are based on a method of apportioning the NFPA estimates for total 

fires, structure fires, vehicle, outside and other fires.21 Generally speaking, the national 

estimates are derived by computing a percentage of fires, deaths, injuries or dollar loss in 

a particular NFIRS category and multiplying it by the corresponding total estimate from 

20For information on NFPA’s survey methodology, please see NFPA’s report on fire loss in the U.S.: http://www.

nfpa.org/news-and-research/fire-statistics-and-reports/fire-statistics/fires-in-the-us/overall-fire-problem/

fire-loss-in-the-united-states. 21National estimates are based on “The National Estimates Approach to U.S. Fire Statistics” by Hall and Harwood: 

http://www.nfpa.org/news-and-research/fire-statistics-and-reports/fire-statistics/how-nfpa-estimates-firesand-fire-losses.
Methodology 21

the NFPA annual survey.22 For example, the national estimate for the number of injuries 

by age group used in the calculation for the fire injury rate per million population was 

computed by taking the percentage of NFIRS fire injuries (with known age) and multiplying 

it by the estimated total number of fire injuries from the NFPA survey. This methodology 

is the accepted practice of national fire data analysts.

Ideally, one would like to have all of the data come from one consistent data source. 

Because the “residential population protected” is not reported to NFIRS by many fire 

departments, and the reliability of that data element is suspect in many other cases, 

especially where a county or other jurisdiction is served by several fire departments that 

each report their population protected independently, this data element was not used. 

Instead, extrapolations of the NFIRS sample to national estimates were made using the 

NFPA survey for the gross totals of fires, deaths, injuries and dollar loss.

One problem with this approach is that the proportions of fires and fire losses differ 

between the large NFIRS sample and the NFPA survey sample. Nonetheless, to be 

consistent with approaches being used by other fire data analysts, the NFPA estimates 

of fires, deaths, injuries and dollar loss are used as a starting point. The details of the fire 

problem below this level are based on proportions from NFIRS. Because the proportions 

of fires and fire losses differ between NFIRS and the NFPA estimates, from time to time, 

this approach leads to minor inconsistencies. These inconsistencies will remain until all 

estimates can be derived from NFIRS data alone.

Data Quality

Data quality is an area of great importance. Three criteria are used in the monitoring of 

the data in NFIRS during the year: (1) the data are complete, (2) the data are accurate, 

and (3) the data are current. These criteria are monitored by creating reports from the 

database that show the number of reporting fire departments, the number of incidents 

by state, the number of invalid incidents, and the number of unreleased incidents. The 

USFA provides the reports to the state NFIRS program managers and works with them 

to resolve any data issues. Technical assistance (e.g., telephone support or site visits) is 

provided to states to help address any data quality and data reporting needs.

Audits of the data are performed during the year to identify any inconsistencies. The 

audits focus on three criteria: gaps in reporting, critical errors in the data, and outliers in 

the data. In particular, USFA works closely with states to monitor the quality of data coming 

from third party vendor software. Each state is responsible for enforcing that the NFIRS 

third party software sold by vendors in their state is compliant with NFIRS standards. 

USFA assists states in monitoring vendor data quality issues or contacts vendors directly 

to discuss an issue at a state’s request. Other data quality issues are questionable high 

dollar-loss incidents and questionable high numbers of fire deaths. Annually, USFA staff 

queries the database for questionable values (i.e., outliers) and verifies the values with 

state-level NFIRS program managers and local-level NFIRS program managers. The data 

quality steps are important to ensure that the data meet USFA’s three criteria before the 

data are released in the NFIRS PDR format.

22The NFPA summary estimates are used for the overall U.S. fire losses; for fire losses from structure, vehicle, 

outside and other fires; and as the basis for USFA’s estimates of residential and nonresidential building fires. 

The alternative approach for these summary numbers is to use the relative percentage of fires (or other loss 

measures) from NFIRS and scale up (multiply by) to the NFPA estimate of total fires.
22 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

In 2014, per OMB’s request, USFA completed a “Review and Assessment of Data Quality 

in the NFIRS.” This document covered a review of the system, the many robust data 

quality checks and mechanisms which are an integral part of NFIRS, and an assessment 

of the data quality both at the state level and at the data element level. The data element 

assessment focused on the most common data elements used in NFIRS data analyses. 

NFIRS data from the three most recent years available at the time of the report’s 

development (2009 to 2011) were reviewed. Additionally, a section drawn from published 

NFPA documents covering the NFPA survey methodology was also included. The “Review 

and Assessment of Data Quality in the NFIRS” documentation was pending release at the 

time of this publication.

Unknown entries, incomplete loss reporting and unreported fires are also important 

considerations when assessing NFIRS data quality. These topics are discussed in more 

detail in the sections that follow.

Unknown Entries

Unknown entries are of the highest concern for data quality. On a fraction of the incident 

reports or casualty reports sent to NFIRS, the desired information for many data items 

either is not reported or is reported as “unknown.” The total number of blank or unknown 

entries is often larger than some of the important subcategories. For example, 47 percent 

of fatal fires in residential buildings reported from 2012 to 2014 do not have sufficient 

data recorded in NFIRS to determine fire cause.23 The lack of data, especially for these 

residential fatal fires, masks the true picture of the fire problem. 

Many prevention and public education programs use NFIRS data to target at-risk groups 

or to address critical problems. Fire officials use the data in decision-making that 

affects the allocation of firefighting resources, and consumer groups and litigators use 

the data to assess product fire incidence. When the numbers of unknown entries are 

large, the credibility of the data suffers. In some cases, even after the best attempts 

by fire investigators, the information is truly unknown. In other cases, the information 

reported as unknown in the initial NFIRS report is not updated after the fire investigation 

is completed. Fire departments need to be more aware of the effect of incomplete data 

reporting, and they need to update the initial NFIRS report if additional information is 

available after the investigation. Through various USFA and NFDC training initiatives and 

efforts by various fire organizations, fire departments are encouraged to reduce the 

number of unknown entries by fully documenting the fire incident.

In making national estimates, the unknowns should not be ignored. The approach taken 

by USFA in presenting the data is to provide not only the “raw” percentages of each 

category but also the “adjusted” percentages computed using only those incidents for 

which data were provided. This calculation, in effect, distributes the fires for which the 

data are unknown in the same proportion as the fires for which the data are known, which 

may or may not be approximately right. Both the reported data and the adjusted data (if 

unknowns are present) are plotted on bar charts.

To illustrate, using the cause of residential building fires, cooking was determined as the fire 

cause for 41.3 percent of reported residential building fires from 2012 to 2014. Another 16.4 

percent of reported fires had cause unknown. Thus, the percentage of fires that had their 

23USFA, Topical Fire Report Series, “Civilian Fire Fatalities in Residential Buildings (2012-2014),” Volume 17, 

Issue 4, July 2016, https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/v17i4.pdf.
Methodology 23

cause reported was 100 minus 16.4, which equals 83.6 percent. With the unknown causes 

proportioned like the known causes, the adjusted percentage of cooking fires in residential 

buildings can then be computed as 41.3 divided by 83.6, which equals 49.4 percent.24

Incomplete Loss Reporting

As troublesome as insufficient data for the various NFIRS data items can be, equally 

challenging is the apparent nonreporting of injuries and property loss associated with 

many fire incidents. For example, there are many reported fires where the flame spread 

indicates damage but property loss is not reported. It is notoriously difficult to estimate 

dollar loss, but an approximation is more useful than leaving the data item blank. The 

degree to which there is incomplete reporting of civilian fire deaths is more difficult to 

identify, as the numbers of deaths are relatively small. Incomplete reporting of civilian 

injuries is also difficult to ascertain, but the injury-per-fire profiles for most departments 

are within reason.

Unreported Fires

NFIRS only includes fires to which the fire service responded. In some states, fires 

attended by state fire agencies (such as forestry) are included; in other states, they are not.

Nonreporting to the National Fire Incident Reporting System

NFIRS includes fires from all states but does not include incidents from all fire departments 

within participating states; the percentage of fire departments reporting varies greatly 

from state to state. However, if the fires from the reporting departments are reasonably 

representative, this omission does not cause a problem in making useful national 

estimates for any but the smallest subcategories of data and some geographic analyses.

Some fire departments submit information on most, but not all, of their fires. Sometimes 

the confusion is systematic, such as when no-loss cooking fires or chimney fires are 

not reported. Sometimes it is inadvertent, such as when incident reports are lost or 

accidentally not submitted. The information that is received is assumed to be the total 

for the department and is extrapolated as such.

Nonreporting to the Fire Service

A very large number of fires are not reported to the fire service at all. Most are believed 

to be small fires in the home or in industry that go out by themselves or are extinguished 

by the occupant. Special surveys of homes and businesses are needed to estimate the 

unreported fires. No attempt is made here to estimate them. Studies undertaken in the 

mid-1970s, mid-1980s, and again in the mid-2000s on unreported residential fires indicated 

that a substantial number of fires are not reported to local fire departments. The 2004 to 

2005 CPSC study on unreported residential fires noted that, of the estimated number of 

fires in residences, only 3 percent were reported to fire departments and 97 percent were 

not.25 Although the vast majority of fire incidents are unreported because they are small, 

confined and immediately extinguished, they are still fires. Even the largest fire starts small. 

Hence, all fires, regardless of size, merit prevention attention and analytic investigation.

24USFA, Topical Fire Report Series, “Residential Building Fires (2012-2014),” Volume 17, Issue 1, June 2016, http://

www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/v17i1.pdf.

25Greene, Michael A. and Craig Andres, Division of Hazard Analysis, Directorate for Epidemiology, U.S. CPSC, 

“2004-2005 National Sample Survey of Unreported Residential Fires,” July 2009.
24 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Structures Versus Buildings

NFIRS 5.0 allows for the differentiation between buildings and nonbuildings. In NFIRS, a 

structure is a built object that can include platforms, tents, connective structures (e.g., 

bridges, fences), telephone poles, and various other structures in addition to buildings. 

From 2005 to 2014, analyses of NFIRS structure fires show that, in general, the majority 

(94 percent) of structure fires occurred in buildings.

Structure fires are defined by the NFIRS incident type — Incident Type 110 series (structure 

fires) and Incident Type 120 series (fires in mobile property used as a fixed structure).26

These incident types are:

ĵ 111 Building fire.

ĵ 112 Fires in structure other than in a building.27

ĵ 113 Cooking fire, confined to container.

ĵ 114 Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue.

ĵ 115 Incinerator overload or malfunction, fire confined.

ĵ 116 Fuel burner/boiler malfunction, fire confined.

ĵ 117 Commercial compactor fire, confined to rubbish.

ĵ 118 Trash or rubbish fire, contained.

ĵ 120 Fire in mobile property used as a fixed structure, other.

ĵ 121 Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence.

ĵ 122 Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle.

ĵ 123 Fire in portable building, fixed location.

As building fires are a subset of structure fires, they are defined as structure fires where 

the structure type is an enclosed building, a fixed portable, or a mobile structure. By 

definition, this excludes nonbuilding structures. Previous USFA analyses demonstrated that 

confined structure fire incidents with full incident reporting primarily occurred in buildings. 

To accommodate the confined fire incident types with abbreviated incident reporting, the 

incident is also assumed to be a building if the structure type is not specified. In terms of 

NFIRS data, building fires are therefore defined using the following criteria:

ĵ NFIRS Version 5.0 data.

ĵ Aid Types:

Ý 1 Mutual aid received.

Ý 2 Automatic aid received.

Ý 5 Other aid given.

Note: Mutual aid given and automatic aid given (Aid Types 3 and 4) were excluded to 

avoid double counting of incidents.

ĵ Incident Types 111 to 123 (excluding Incident Type 112):

Ý 111 Building fire.

Ý 113 Cooking fire, confined to container.

Ý 114 Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue.

Ý 115 Incinerator overload or malfunction, fire confined.

26Note that Incident Type 110 is not included. Incident Type 110 is a conversion code for NFIRS 4.1. Incident 

Type 110 is not a valid code for data collected in NFIRS 5.0. Incidents in the NFIRS 5.0 database with Incident 

Type 110 are incidents collected under the NFIRS 4.1 system that are converted to NFIRS 5.0 compatible data.

27Preliminary findings noted that the fires coded as Incident Type 112 appear to be in buildings. A more detailed 

look at these incident types is required to determine whether they were coded correctly.
Methodology 25

Ý 116 Fuel burner/boiler malfunction, fire confined.

Ý 117 Commercial compactor fire, confined to rubbish.

Ý 118 Trash or rubbish fire, contained.

Ý 120 Fire in mobile property used as a fixed structure, other.

Ý 121 Fire in mobile home used as fixed residence.

Ý 122 Fire in motor home, camper, recreational vehicle.

Ý 123 Fire in portable building, fixed location.

Notes: 1. Incident Types 113 to 118 do not specify if the structure is a building.

2. Incident Type 112 was included in data analyses prior to 2008, as previous 

analyses showed that Incident Types 111 and 112 were used interchangeably. 

As of 2008, Incident Type 112 was excluded.

ĵ Structure Type:

Ý For Incident Types 113 to 118:

f 1—Enclosed building, or

f 2—Fixed portable or mobile structure, or

f Structure Type not specified (null entry).

Ý For Incident Types 111 and 120 to 123:

f 1—Enclosed building, or

f 2—Fixed portable or mobile structure.

The distinction between buildings and nonbuildings is particularly important when 

determining the effectiveness of engineered fire safety features, such as smoke alarms and 

residential sprinklers. These important components of early fire detection and automatic 

suppression apply to buildings and not necessarily to other types of structures. To facilitate 

analysis of these components and to acknowledge that prevention efforts generally are 

focused on buildings, the USFA separates the subset of buildings from the rest of the 

structures. For these reasons, the USFA focuses on producing building fire and loss estimates.

The USFA’s Fire Estimate Summary Series, as well as 2003 to 2014 national estimates of 

residential and nonresidential building fires and losses, are published at https://www.

usfa.fema.gov/data/statistics/order_download_data.html. For information on the USFA’s 

methodology for computing national estimates of residential and nonresidential building 

fires and losses, please review USFA’s National Estimates Methodology for Building 

Fires and Losses (August 2012) at https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/

national_estimate_methodology.pdf.

Computing Trends

One FAQ is how much a particular aspect of the fire problem has changed over time. The 

usual response is in terms of a percent change from one year to another. In dealing with 

real-world data that fluctuate from year to year, a percent change from one specific year 

to another can be misleading. This is especially true when the beginning and ending data 

points are extremes, either high or low. For example, Table 5 shows that the percent 

change from 8,950 fire injuries in one- and two-family residential buildings in 2005 to 

7,550 fire injuries in 2014 would be a substantial decrease of 15.6 percent; however, if 

2006 is chosen as the beginning data point (8,225 fire injuries), this change would show 

an 8.2 percent decrease. As trends in the U.S. fire problem are of interest, USFA presents 

the computed best-fit linear trend line (which smoothes fluctuations in the year-to-year 

data) and presents the change over time based on this trend line. In this example, the 

overall 10-year trend is a decrease in injuries of 10.2 percent. As noted above, trends that 

incorporate NFIRS data from the 5.0 system may have subtle changes as a result of the 

system design and not a true trend change.
26 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Table 5. Comparison of Percent Change Indicators

Year

One- and 

Two-Family 

Residential 

Building 

Fire Injuries

Best-Fit 

Linear Trend

Change 

Between 

2005 and 2014

Change 

Between 

2006 and 2014

2005 8,950 8,860 8,950

2006 8,225 8,760 8,225

2007 9,125 8,660

2008 8,400 8,560

2009 8,125 8,460

2010 8,525 8,360

2011 8,925 8,260

2012 8,300 8,160

2013 7,975 8,060

2014 7,550 7,960 7,550 7,550

Percent change -10.2% -15.6% -8.2%

Source:	 USFA national estimates of one- and two-family residential building fire injuries.

Rounding

Percentages on each chart are rounded to one decimal point. Textual discussions cite 

these percentages as whole numbers. Thus, 13.4 percent is rounded to 13 percent, and 

13.5 percent is rounded to 14 percent. National estimates are rounded as follows: Fires are 

rounded to the nearest 100 fires, deaths to the nearest five deaths, injuries to the nearest 

25 injuries, and loss to the nearest million dollars.

Comparing Statistics

Differences between the current NFIRS and older versions have, or may have, an effect 

on the analyses of fire topics. These differences, the result of both coding changes and 

data element design changes, required revisions to long-standing groupings and analyses. 

The revisions have caused some challenges when comparing current data to past data.

Data Collection and Reporting Changes

Abbreviated or streamlined reporting for qualified incidents, the collection of smoke alarm 

and automatic extinguishing system data (formerly called sprinklers), definition changes 

for some property types, the differentiation between buildings and structures, and 

changes in the cause methodology are among the areas that are approached differently 

in NFIRS 5.0.28 These revisions have resulted in changes in overall trends, some subtle and 

some substantial.

28Other changes between NFIRS 4.1 and 5.0, such as mutual aid, do not have as significant an impact on 

analyses. As such, they are not addressed here. The NFIRS 5.0 documentation at https://www.usfa.fema.gov/

data/nfirs/support/documentation.html provides detailed information.
Methodology 27

Confined Fires

“Confined fires” are fires contained to certain types of equipment or objects within a 

structure. In NFIRS, a confined structure fire is defined by Incident Type codes 113 to 118.29

Confined structure fires are typically small fire incidents that are limited in extent, staying 

within pots, fireplaces or certain other noncombustible containers. Confined structure 

fires rarely result in serious injury or large content loss and are expected to have no 

significant accompanying property loss due to flame damage.30

NFIRS allows abbreviated reporting for confined structure fires. For these incident types, 

the Basic Module is required to be completed. NFIRS users may also optionally complete 

the Fire Module and the Structure Fire Module for confined fires, although it is not 

required. If any civilian or firefighter injuries occurred as a result of the confined fire, the 

Civilian Fire Casualty Module and/or the Fire Service Casualty Module are required to be 

completed for each injury reported on the Basic Module.

The limited reporting of confined, low-loss structure fires allows the fire service to capture 

incidents that either may have gone unreported prior to the introduction of NFIRS 5.0 or 

were reported, but as a nonfire incident, as little to no loss was involved.31 Data from this 

reporting option for structure fires was investigated in a 2006 USFA report, “Confined 

Structure Fires.” The addition of these fires results in increased proportions of cooking and 

heating fires in analyses of structure fire cause. In other analyses, the inclusion of confined 

fires may result in larger unknowns, as detailed reporting of fire specifics is not required. 

In many USFA analyses, the confined fires are analyzed separately from the nonconfined 

fires to account for the fact that detailed reporting is not required for the confined fires. 

In 2014, confined structure fires accounted for 19 percent of all reported fires and 48 

percent of all reported structure fires. Of the confined structure fires, 82 percent were 

no- or low-loss cooking fires (68 percent) and heating fires (14 percent).

Structure Fire Cause Methodology

Since the introduction of NFIRS 5.0, the implementation of the cause hierarchy has 

resulted in a steady increase in the percentages of unknown fire causes. This increase may 

be due, in part, to the fact that the original cause hierarchy (described in “Fire in the United 

States 1995-2004,” 14th edition) does not apply as well to NFIRS 5.0. Causal information 

collected as part of NFIRS 5.0 was not incorporated in the old hierarchy. As a result, many 

incidents were assigned to the unknown cause category. As the hierarchy was originally 

designed for structures, incidents that did not fit well into the structure cause categories 

were also assigned to the unknown category.

29The confined structure fire incident type code descriptions are as follows: 113-Cooking fire, confined to 

container; 114-Chimney or flue fire, confined to chimney or flue; 115-Incinerator overload or malfunction, 

fire confined; 116-Fuel burner/boiler malfunction, fire confined; 117-Commercial compactor fire, confined to 

rubbish; and 118-Trash or rubbish fire, contained.

30Content loss includes losses to the contents of a structure due to damage by fire, smoke, water and overhaul. 

Property loss includes losses to the structure itself or to the property itself. For confined fires, the expectation 

is that the fire did not spread beyond the container (or rubbish for Incident Type code 118), and therefore, there 

was no property damage (damage to the structure itself) from the flames. However, there could be property 

damage as a result of smoke, water and overhaul.

31Some states routinely reported such nonloss fires as smoke scares. The result, from a reporting viewpoint, 

is that the incident is reported but not coded as a fire incident.
28 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Structure Fires

To capture the wealth of data available in NFIRS 5.0, USFA developed a modified version of 

the previous cause hierarchy for structure fires as shown in Table 6. The revised schema 

provides three levels of cause descriptions: a set of more detailed causes (priority cause 

description), a set of midlevel causes (cause description), and a set of high-level causes 

(general cause description). The priority cause description and the cause description 

existed previously as part of the original cause hierarchy but have been expanded to 

capture the 5.0 data.

Table 6. Three-Level Structure Fire Cause Hierarchy

Priority Cause Description

(in hierarchical order) Cause Description General Cause Description

Exposure Exposure Exposure

Intentional Intentional Firesetting

Cause under investigation Cause under investigation Unknown

Children playing Playing with heat source Firesetting Other playing

Natural Natural Natural

Fireworks

Other heat

Explosives Flame, heat

Smoking Smoking

Heating Heating

Cooking Cooking Equipment

Air conditioning Appliances

Electrical distribution Electrical malfunction Electrical

Appliances Appliances

Special equipment Equipment Other equipment Processing equipment

Torches Open flame Flame, heat

Service equipment

Other equipment Equipment Vehicle, engine

Unclassified fuel-powered 

equipment

Unclassified equipment with 

other or unknown fuel source Unknown Unknown

Unclassified electrical 

malfunction Electrical malfunction Electrical

Matches, candles Open flame

Flame, heat

Open fire

Other open flame, spark Other heat

Friction, hot material

Ember, rekindle Open flame

Other hot object Other heat
Methodology 29

Table 6. Three-Level Structure Fire Cause Hierarchy — Continued

Priority Cause Description

(in hierarchical order) Cause Description General Cause 

Description

Natural condition, other Natural Natural

Heat source or product 

misuse Other unintentional, careless Unknown

Equipment operation 

deficiency Equipment misoperation, 

failure Equipment Equipment failure, 

malfunction

Trash, rubbish Unknown

Unknown

Other unintentional Other unintentional, careless

Exposure (fire spread, other) Exposure Exposure

Unknown Unknown Unknown

Source: USFA.

Note:	 Fires are assigned to a cause category in the hierarchical order shown. For example, if the fire is judged to be intentionally set

and a match was used to ignite it, it is classified as intentional and not open flame because intentional is higher on the list.

The causes of fires are often a complex chain of events. To make it easier to grasp the “big 

picture,” the 16 midlevel categories of fire causes, such as heating, cooking, and playing 

with heat source, are used by USFA. The alternative is to present scores of detailed cause 

categories or scenarios, each of which would have a relatively small percentage of fires. 

For example, heating includes subcategories such as misuse of portable space heaters, 

wood stove chimney fires, and fires involving gas central heating systems. Experience has 

shown that the larger categories are useful for an initial presentation of the fire problem. 

A more detailed analysis can follow.

Fires are assigned to one of the 16 midlevel cause groupings using a hierarchy of definitions, 

approximately as shown in Table 7.32 A fire is included in the highest category into which it 

fits on the list. If it does not fit the top category, then the second one is considered, and if 

not that one, the third and so on. (See the note section in Table 6 for an example.)

Vehicle, Outside and Other Fires

While these cause categories have usefulness for the other property types — vehicle, 

outside and other fires — there are limitations. For these property types, the causes of 

fires are based on the distributions of the NFIRS cause of ignition data element. This data 

element captures a very broad sense of the cause of the fire.

Deaths, Injuries and Dollar Loss

In previous analyses, the cause sections have included the distributions of deaths, injuries 

and dollar loss by fire cause. In principle, it is the cause of the fire that results in deaths, 

injuries and dollar loss which should be analyzed, not numbers of deaths and injuries 

associated with fire causes. Therefore, analyses of fire cause address fires that result in 

deaths (fatal fires), fires that result in injuries, and fires that result in dollar loss.

32The structure fire cause hierarchy and definitions can be found in the document “National Fire Incident 

Reporting System Version 5.0 Fire Data Analysis Guidelines and Issues,” July 2011, available at https://www.

usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/nfirs/nfirs_data_analysis_guidelines_issues.pdf. The hierarchy involves a large 

number of subcategories that are later grouped into the 16 midlevel cause categories, then the seven highlevel cause groupings.
30 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Other Considerations

An additional problem to keep in mind when considering the rank order of causes is 

that sufficient data to categorize the causes was not reported to NFIRS for all fatal fires 

in the database. The rank order of causes might be different than shown here if the 

cause profile for the fires where causes were not reported to NFIRS was substantially 

different from the profile for the fires where causes were reported. However, there is 

no information available to indicate that there is a major difference between the known 

causes and the unknown causes, so USFA’s present best estimate of fire causes is based 

on the distribution of the fires with known causes.

Table 7. Midlevel Cause Groupings

Cause Category Definition

Exposure Caused by heat spreading from another hostile fire.

Intentional33 Cause of ignition is intentional, or fire is deliberately set.

Cause under 

investigation

Cause is under investigation, and a valid NFIRS Arson Module is 

present. (This category was formerly called “Investigation with Arson 

Module.”)

Playing with 

heat source

Includes all fires caused by individuals playing with any materials 

contained in the categories below, as well as fires where the factors 

contributing to ignition include playing with heat source. Children 

playing with fire is included in this category.

Natural Caused by the sun’s heat, spontaneous ignition, chemicals, lightning, 

static discharge, high winds, storms, high water including floods, 

earthquakes, volcanic action, and animals.

Other heat Includes fireworks, explosives, flame/torch used for lighting, heat or 

spark from friction, molten material, hot material, heat from hot or 

smoldering objects.

Smoking Cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and heat from undetermined smoking 

materials.

Heating Includes confined chimney or flue fire, fire confined to fuel burner/

boiler malfunction, central heating, fixed and portable local heating 

units, fireplaces and chimneys, furnaces, boilers, water heaters as 

source of heat.

Cooking Includes confined cooking fires, stoves, ovens, fixed and portable 

warming units, deep fat fryers, open grills as source of heat.

Appliances Includes televisions, radios, video equipment, phonographs, dryers, 

washing machines, dishwashers, garbage disposals, vacuum cleaners, 

hand tools, electric blankets, irons, hair dryers, electric razors, can 

openers, dehumidifiers, heat pumps, water cooling devices, air 

conditioners, freezers and refrigeration equipment as source of heat.

Electrical 

malfunction

Includes electrical distribution, wiring, transformers, meter boxes, 

power switching gear, outlets, cords, plugs, surge protectors, electric 

fences, lighting fixtures, electrical arcing as source of heat.

33Fires caused by intentional actions include, but are not limited to, fires that are deemed to be arson. 

Intentional fires are those fires that are deliberately set, and they include fires that result from the deliberate 

misuse of a heat source and fires of an incendiary nature (arson) that require fire service intervention. For 

information and statistics on arson fires only, refer to the Uniform Crime Reporting Program arson statistics 

from the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, Criminal Justice Information Services Division, https://www.fbi.gov/

about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr.
Methodology 31

Table 7. Midlevel Cause Groupings — Continued

Cause Category Definition

Other 

equipment

Includes special equipment (radar, X-ray, computer, telephone, 

transmitters, vending machine, office machine, pumps, printing press, 

gardening tools, agricultural equipment), processing equipment 

(furnace, kiln, other industrial machines), service, maintenance 

equipment (incinerator, elevator), separate motor or generator, vehicle 

in a structure, unspecified equipment.

Open flame, 

spark 

(heat from)

Includes torches, candles, matches, lighters, open fire, ember, ash, 

rekindled fire, backfire from internal combustion engine as source 

of heat.

Other 

unintentional, 

careless

Includes misuse of material or product, abandoned or discarded 

materials or products, heat source too close to combustibles, other 

unintentional (mechanical failure/malfunction, backfire).

Equipment 

misoperation, 

failure

Includes equipment operation deficiency, equipment malfunction.

Unknown Cause of fire undetermined or not reported.

Source: USFA.

NFIRS fire causal data can be analyzed in many ways, such as by the heat source, equipment 

involved in ignition, factors contributing to ignition, or many other groupings. The hierarchy 

of causes has proven to be useful in understanding the fire problem and targeting 

prevention, but other approaches are useful too. Because the NFIRS database stores records 

fire-by-fire, and not just in summary statistics, a wide variety of analyses is possible.

The cause categories displayed in the graphs of USFA’s NFIRS data-related reports are 

listed in the same order to make comparisons easier from one to another. The y-scale 

varies from figure to figure depending on the largest percentage that is shown; the y-scale 

on a figure with multiple charts, however, is always the same.

Differences Between the National Fire Incident Reporting System Data and National 

Fire Protection Association Survey Data

As there are differences between any two analysts using NFIRS data because of the many 

assumptions and decisions about how to analyze incomplete and imperfect data, there can 

be inconsistencies between different data sources. In particular, there are discrepancies 

between the NFIRS 5.0 data and the NFPA annual survey data. In general, NFIRS 5.0 deaths 

and injuries per 1,000 fires are lower than those of NFPA. In addition, with the exception of 

2007 and 2012 to 2014, NFIRS 5.0 dollar loss per fire was lower than that of NFPA.34

From 2010 to 2014, NFIRS collected fire incident data from an average of 20,460 fire 

departments each year.35 The NFPA annual survey of fire departments36 collects data 

from nearly 3,000 fire departments. NFIRS is not a statistically selected sample; however, 

it is a very large set of fire incidents estimated to be, on average, two-thirds of reported 

fires. The NFPA survey is based on a statistical sample. These two datasets often yield 

dramatically different fire rates. The NFPA survey collects tallied totals, whereas NFIRS 

34As NFIRS 5.0 captures a large number of small, low-loss fires (confined fires) thought to be unreported 

previously, these differences in loss rates per fire may not be surprising.

35This figure excludes mutual-aid incidents.

36“Fire Loss in the United States,” NFPA Journal, generally the September/October issue each year.
32 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

collects individual incident reports. The proportion of native NFIRS 5.0 fire data rose 

from 89 percent of all NFIRS fire incidents collected in 2004 to 100 percent of all NFIRS fire 

incidents starting in 2009 (Table 4). It is not surprising, therefore, that there are differences 

between the NFPA annual survey results and the NFIRS results. In the years examined 

(2005 to 2014), the common thread was the increase in the ratios of NFIRS data to the 

NFPA estimates. In general, the deaths reported to NFIRS represented a smaller fraction 

of the NFPA national estimate of deaths than the NFIRS number of fires represented of the 

NFPA estimate of fires. Estimates of dollar loss are notoriously inexact; it is not surprising 

that the NFIRS dollar loss changed from year to year with respect to NFPA totals (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Ratio of Raw National Fire Incident Reporting System Sample to 

National Fire Protection Association National Estimates Ratio

0.0000

0.1000

0.2000

0.3000

0.4000

0.5000

0.6000

0.7000

0.8000

Fires

Deaths

Injuries

Dollar Loss

2014201320122011201020092008200720062005

Fires Deaths Injuries Dollar Loss

2005 0.56 0.47 0.50 0.47

2006 0.58 0.57 0.55 0.54

2007 0.63 0.55 0.53 0.64

2008 0.64 0.59 0.57 0.62

2009 0.67 0.61 0.56 0.57

2010 0.73 0.63 0.59 0.62

2011 0.71 0.67 0.60 0.70

2012 0.65 0.65 0.56 0.65

2013 0.67 0.57 0.56 0.70

2014 0.68 0.61 0.58 0.75

Sources: NFPA and NFIRS.

Note: The 2007 dollar loss excludes the one-time large loss of an estimated $1.8 billion associated with the 2007 California 

Fire Storm. The 2008 dollar loss excludes the one-time large loss of an estimated $1.4 billion associated with the 2008 

California Wildfires. These losses do not have associated property uses. The 2010 dollar loss excludes the Fourmile

Canyon Wildfire in Colorado with an estimated property loss of $217 million. The 2012 dollar loss excludes the Waldo

Canyon Fire in Colorado with an estimated property loss of $453.7 million, the High Park Fire also in Colorado with an 

estimated property loss of $113.7 million, and the $400 million property damage to the USS Miami (submarine). The 2013 

dollar loss excludes the Black Forest Fire in Colorado with an estimated property loss of $420.5 million.
Methodology 33

Looking at the problem from a different perspective, Figure 3 shows the number of deaths 

per 1,000 fires, injuries per 1,000 fires, and dollar loss per fire from NFIRS and NFPA from 

2005 to 2014. In general, deaths and injuries per 1,000 fires were lower for NFIRS than for 

NFPA. With the exception of 2007 and 2012 to 2014, NFIRS dollar loss per fire was lower 

than that of NFPA. This difference may be the result of more low-loss fires being reported 

to NFIRS as a result of the abbreviated reporting option for these fires.

Between 2005 and 2014, NFIRS had, on average, a difference of 9 percent fewer fire deaths 

per 1,000 fires than the NFPA survey data. Annually, the NFIRS percent differences of 

fire deaths per 1,000 fires ranged from 0.6 percent more to 16 percent fewer than that 

of NFPA. In 2014, NFIRS showed 11 percent fewer fire deaths per 1,000 fires than NFPA.

Injuries per 1,000 fires revealed a greater disparity between the two datasets. On average, 

between 2005 and 2014, NFIRS had a difference of 14 percent fewer fire injuries per 1,000 

fires than the NFPA survey.

On average over the 10-year period, the NFIRS dollar loss per fire was 4 percent lower 

than that of the NFPA survey. In 2008 and 2011, NFIRS dollar loss was only 3 percent and 

2 percent lower, respectively, than the dollar loss estimates from the NFPA survey, but a 

much greater disparity was revealed in 2005 (15 percent lower), 2009 (15 percent lower), 

2010 (15 percent lower), and 2014 (9 percent higher). In 2007, 2 percent more dollar loss 

was reported to NFIRS per fire than was reflected by the NFPA survey estimates; for each 

of the years 2012 and 2013, 1 percent and 5 percent more dollar loss was reported to 

NFIRS per fire.

Figure 3. National Fire Incident Reporting System Versus National Fire Protection 

Association Survey: Losses per Fire

1.6

1.8

2.0

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

NFIRS

NFPA

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Deaths (per 1,000 fires) Deaths (per 1,000 fires)

Year NFIRS NFPA

2005 1.92 2.29

2006 1.93 1.98

2007 1.92 2.20

2008 2.13 2.29

2009 2.04 2.23

2010 2.02 2.34

2011 2.04 2.16

2012 2.09 2.08

2013 2.21 2.61

2014 2.25 2.52
34 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 3. National Fire Incident Reporting System Versus National Fire Protection 

Association Survey: Losses per Fire — Continued

Injuries (per 1,000 fires)

9.0

9.4

9.8

10.2

10.6

11.0

11.4

11.8

12.2

12.6

13.0

13.4

NFIRS

NFPA

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Injuries (per 1,000 fires)

Year NFIRS NFPA

2005 9.98 11.19

2006 9.48 9.98

2007 9.52 11.35

2008 10.30 11.51

2009 10.65 12.64

2010 10.61 13.31

2011 10.59 12.59

2012 10.47 12.00

2013 10.64 12.84

2014 10.34 12.15

Dollar Loss (per fire) Adjusted to 2014 Dollars

$6,000

$6,500

$7,000

$7,500

$8,000

$8,500

$9,000

$9,500

$10,000

$10,500

$11,000

$11,500

NFIRS

NFPA

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Dollar Loss (per fire)*

Year NFIRS NFPA

2005 6,840 8,075

2006 7,560 8,084

2007 9,569 9,412

2008 10,308 10,664

2009 8,729 10,254

2010 7,872 9,276

2011 8,676 8,831

2012 8,672 8,594

2013 9,534 9,101

2014 9,780 8,941

Sources: NFPA, NFIRS and CPI.

Notes: The 2007 dollar loss excludes the one-time large loss of an estimated $1.8 billion associated with the 2007 California 

Fire Storm. The 2008 dollar loss excludes the one-time large loss of an estimated $1.4 billion associated with the 2008 

California Wildfires. These losses do not have associated property uses. The 2010 dollar loss excludes the Fourmile

Canyon Wildfire in Colorado with an estimated property loss of $217 million. The 2012 dollar loss excludes the Waldo

Canyon Fire in Colorado with an estimated property loss of $453.7 million, the High Park Fire also in Colorado with an 

estimated property loss of $113.7 million, and the $400 million property damage to the USS Miami (submarine). The 2013 

dollar loss excludes the Black Forest Fire in Colorado with an estimated property loss of $420.5 million.

*Adjusted to 2014 dollars.
Methodology 35

Other minor differences appear when reviewing losses by general property type as shown 

in Figure 4. Specifically, the distributions of fires across property types between NFIRS 

and NFPA were quite similar, which is reassuring. Over the 10-year period, the proportions 

of structure fires (both residential and nonresidential) and outside and other fires were 

higher in the NFIRS reported data, while the proportion of vehicle fires represented by the 

NFPA estimate was higher than what was reported to NFIRS. Regardless of the specifics, 

the distributions were reasonably comparable.

Figure 4. Comparison of National Fire Incident Reporting System Data with 

National Fire Protection Association Estimates by General Property Type 

(10-year average, 2005-2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0

NFPA

NFIRS

Outside

 and other

Vehicle

Nonresidential

Residential

28.7

27.6

8.1

7.5

14.1

16.2

49.2

48.8

Percent

Fires

0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0

NFPA

NFIRS

Outside

 and other

Vehicle

Nonresidential

Residential

75.2

84.4

3.7

2.6

16.6

11.3

4.5

1.7

Percent

Deaths

0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0

NFPA

NFIRS

Outside

 and other

Vehicle

Nonresidential

Residential

77.4

78.9

7.8

8.6

6.5

8.0

8.2

4.6

Percent

Injuries

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0

NFPA

NFIRS

Outside

 and other

Vehicle

Nonresidential

Residential

54.9

60.8

26.7

23.4

10.9

11.9

7.5

3.8

Percent

Dollar Loss Adjusted to 2014 Dollars

Sources: NFPA and NFIRS.
36 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

The deaths, injuries and dollar losses that resulted from these fires were consistently 

more heavily represented in residential structures in the NFPA estimates. For the other 

major property categories (except vehicular fire injuries and dollar loss and nonresidential 

structure fire injuries), the NFPA percentages of losses were consistently less than those 

resulting from NFIRS data.

One of the more important consequences of these distributions is in the creation of 

estimates of the various parts of the U.S. fire problem. For example, it is noted that the 

2014 NFPA residential structure fire estimates reflect 85 percent of all fire deaths (2,795 of 

3,275) and 77 percent of all fire injuries (12,175 of 15,775). If the 2014 NFIRS percentages for 

residential structure fire deaths (75.0 percent) and injuries (78.0 percent) were applied to 

the overall 2014 NFPA estimates of fire deaths and injuries, the estimates would yield nearly 

2,455 deaths and 12,300 injuries resulting from residential structure fires. The scaled up 

estimate of residential structure fire deaths is 12 percent lower than the NFPA estimate of 

residential structure fire deaths, whereas the scaled up estimate of residential structure 

fire injuries is 1 percent higher than the NFPA estimate of residential structure fire injuries.

The reasons for these differences in distributions between NFPA and NFIRS are not 

known. It may be that some departments reporting summary data to NFPA inadvertently 

undercount their casualties and losses when reporting on the NFPA survey forms. Another 

possibility is that there are data entry errors in NFIRS, with larger numbers of deaths, 

injuries and dollar loss per incident record being entered into the database despite 

edit checks at state and federal levels. (It appears that at least some of the dollar loss 

difference is due to this.)

A third possibility for the differences is that, with the introduction of abbreviated reporting 

of small, low- or no-loss confined fires in NFIRS, the NFPA sample of these fires is not 

adequately represented. It is known that, prior to abbreviated NFIRS reporting, some 

departments did not fill out NFIRS forms for minor fires, such as food on stoves or chimney 

fires. It is not clear whether these fires were included in the department’s report to NFPA 

and whether this reporting has changed. Also unknown is the actual extent of this problem.

A fourth possibility is that some jurisdictions use NFIRS as a tracking system for fire 

casualty information without providing the related incident data or vice versa. This 

situation does indeed occur from time to time in NFIRS. Again, it is unclear how these 

incidents and their corresponding losses are reported to NFPA.

Lastly, it could be that techniques used to generate the NFPA estimates unintentionally 

favor residential buildings or that NFIRS, because it is a voluntary system and not a true 

statistical sample, may result in fewer residential losses.

Resolving the differences between the two major sources of fire statistics in the U.S. is 

important to prevent confusion among users of the data.

Organization of Report

This report presents an overview of the national fire problem in terms of estimates of 

the total numbers of fires, deaths, injuries, and dollar loss (the four principal measures 

used to describe the fire problem) as well as 10-year trends. It also provides an overview 

and 10-year trends of building (residential and nonresidential) fires and losses. Trends in 

vehicle and other mobile properties and outside and other properties are also analyzed. 

Additionally, the report covers causes of fires and fires resulting in losses, as well as fire 

casualties in terms of death and injury rates and relative risk.
The National Fire Problem 37

The National Fire Problem

Fire departments in the U.S. responded to nearly 1.3 million fire calls in 2014.37 The U.S. 

fire problem no longer ranks as the most severe of the industrialized nations, yet each 

year thousands of Americans die, tens of thousands of people are injured, and property 

losses reach billions of dollars. Falling from among the top three nations in terms of the 

fire death rate two decades ago, the U.S. has the 12th highest fire death rate out of the 28 

industrialized nations examined by the World Fire Statistics Centre.38 Nonetheless, the U.S. 

continues to experience fire death rates 1.5 to 2.5 times higher than those of most of its 

sister nations.39 Many Americans are not aware of this or of the nature of the fire problem.

There are huge indirect costs of fire as well — temporary lodging, lost business revenues, 

medical expenses, psychological damage, and others. To put this in context, the annual 

losses from floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters 

combined in the U.S. average just a fraction of those from fires.40

Fires and Losses (10-Year Trends, 2005-2014)

Over the 10 years from 2005 to 2014, the U.S. had an annual average of 1,423,600 fires 

resulting in 3,220 civilian deaths, 16,925 civilian injuries, and $13 billion in direct property 

loss each year.41 In terms of estimates of fires, fire deaths and fire injuries, the estimates 

are lower than they were 10 years ago. When USFA was established in 1974, annual fire 

deaths were estimated at 12,000.42 The goal was to reduce deaths by 50 percent within 25 

years; that goal was met. By 2012, estimates of civilian fire deaths were at their lowest level 

(2,855). While fire deaths are still trending downward, in 2014, estimates of fire deaths 

were 15 percent higher than they were in 2012.

Figure 5 shows the 10-year trends for all fires and losses from 2005 to 2014. Fires declined 

by 23 percent over the 10 years. Trends in fire-related deaths, injuries and dollar loss also 

declined by 12 percent, 8 percent and 21 percent, respectively.

37NFPA, “Fire Loss in the United States During 2014,” September 2015.

38The Geneva Association, “World Fire Statistics,” Bulletin, Number 29, April 2014, https://www.

genevaassociation.org/media/874729/ga2014-wfs29.pdf. Note: Belgium was excluded from this review, as 

only its 2004 fire death rates were available.

39The Geneva Association, “World Fire Statistics,” Bulletin, Number 29, April 2014, https://www.

genevaassociation.org/media/874729/ga2014-wfs29.pdf. As reported, the U.S. had a fire death rate of 1.11 

fire deaths per 100,000 population for 2008 to 2010; the Netherlands had the lowest comparable European fire 

death rate at 0.46 per 100,000 population. Switzerland’s fire death rate was lower still at 0.34, but it excluded 

firefighter deaths.

40NWS, National Hazard Statistics, 2014, http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats/sum14.pdf.

41Annual average estimates are based on NFPA estimates of fires, deaths, injuries and dollar loss. Fires are 

rounded to the nearest 100; deaths to the nearest five; injuries to the nearest 25; and dollar loss to the nearest 

billion dollars. The 2005 to 2013 dollar-loss values were adjusted to 2014 dollars.

42“America Burning.” The Report of the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control, 1973. NFPA 

changed their estimation methodology in the mid-1970s. As a result, by 1977, the estimate of fire deaths had 

already dropped to approximately 7,400 and rose the next year to 7,700. Nevertheless, it is fair to say that the 

50 percent reduction in fire deaths was achieved.
38 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 5. Fires and Fire Losses (2005-2014 )

1,200

1,250

1,300

1,350

1,400

1,450

1,500

1,550

1,600

1,650

1,700

Trend

Fires

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Fires (in thousands) Fires (thousands)

Year Value

2005 1,602.0

2006 1,642.5

2007 1,557.5

2008 1,451.5

2009 1,348.5

2010 1,331.5

2011 1,389.5

2012 1,375.0

2013 1,240.0

2014 1,298.0

10-year 

trend (%) -22.7%

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

4,500

Trend

Fire Deaths

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Fire Deaths Deaths

Year Value

2005 3,675

2006 3,245

2007 3,430

2008 3,320

2009 3,010

2010 3,120

2011 3,005

2012 2,855

2013 3,240

2014 3,275

10-year 

trend (%) -11.7%
The National Fire Problem 39

Figure 5. Fires and Fire Losses (2005-2014 ) — Continued

15,500

16,000

16,500

17,000

17,500

18,000

18,500

Trend

Fire Injuries

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Fire Injuries Injuries

Year Value

2005 17,925

2006 16,400

2007 17,675

2008 16,705

2009 17,050

2010 17,720

2011 17,500

2012 16,500

2013 15,925

2014 15,775

10-year 

trend (%) -7.9%

$8.0

$10.0

$12.0

$14.0

$16.0

$18.0

Trend

(Adjusted)

Fire Dollar Loss

(Adjusted)

Trend

(Actual)

Fire Dollar Loss

(Actual)

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Fire Dollar Loss (in $B)

Actual

Adjusted

Dollar Loss ($B)

Year Actual

Adjusted 

to 2014 

Dollars

2005 $10.7 $12.9

2006 $11.3 $13.3

2007 $14.6 $16.7

2008 $15.5 $17.0

2009 $12.5 $13.8

2010 $11.6 $12.6

2011 $11.7 $12.3

2012 $12.4 $12.8

2013 $11.5 $11.7

2014 $11.6 $11.6

10-year 

trend 

(%)

-5.8% -21.0%

Sources: NFPA and CPI .
40 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Fires Loss Rates (2005-2014)

Figure 6 shows the 10-year trends in the rates per million population for all fires and 

associated losses from 2005 to 2014. Fires per million population reached a low in 2013, 

but rose slightly in 2014. Still, in 2014, the fire death rate was less than a third of what 

it was in the late 1970s.43 Fires, deaths and injuries per million population continued to 

decline by 29 percent, 18 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Dollar loss per capita 

decreased 27 percent over the 10 years when adjusted for inflation.

Figure 6. Fire Loss Rates (2005-2014)

3,500.0

3,750.0

4,000.0

4,250.0

4,500.0

4,750.0

5,000.0

5,250.0

5,500.0

5,750.0

6,000.0

Trend

Fires

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Fires per Million Population Fires per Million 

Population

Year Value

2005 5,421.0

2006 5,504.7

2007 5,170.4

2008 4,773.2

2009 4,395.8

2010 4,304.2

2011 4,457.5

2012 4,377.6

2013 3,918.8

2014 4,070.1

10-year 

trend (%) -28.5%

6.0

7.0

8.0

9.0

10.0

11.0

12.0

13.0

14.0

Trend

Fire Deaths

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Fire Deaths per Million Population Deaths per Million 

Population

Year Value

2005 12.4

2006 10.9

2007 11.4

2008 10.9

2009 9.8

2010 10.1

2011 9.6

2012 9.1

2013 10.2

2014 10.3

10-year 

trend (%) -18.4%

43In 1979, the fire death rate was 34.8 deaths per million population as cited in USFA’s “America Burning 

Revisited,” 1987, p. 15.
The National Fire Problem 41

Figure 6. Fire Loss Rates (2005-2014) — Continued

48.0

50.0

52.0

54.0

56.0

58.0

60.0

62.0

64.0

66.0

Trend

Fire Injuries

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Fire Injuries per Million Population Injuries per Million 

Population

Year Value

2005 60.7

2006 55.0

2007 58.7

2008 54.9

2009 55.6

2010 57.3

2011 56.1

2012 52.5

2013 50.3

2014 49.5

10-year 

trend (%) -14.6%

$0.0

$10.0

$20.0

$30.0

$40.0

$50.0

$60.0

Trend (Adjusted)

Fire Dollar Loss (Adjusted)

Trend (Actual)

Fire Dollar Loss (Actual)

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Fire Dollar Loss per Capita

Actual

Adjusted

Dollar Loss per Capita

Year Actual 

Value

Adjusted 

to 2014 

Dollars

2005 $36.1 $43.8

2006 $37.9 $44.5

2007 $48.6 $55.5

2008 $50.9 $56.0

2009 $40.8 $45.1

2010 $37.5 $40.7

2011 $37.4 $39.4

2012 $39.6 $40.8

2013 $36.4 $37.0

2014 $36.4 $36.4

10-year 

trend 

(%)

-12.3% -26.6%

Sources: NFPA, CPI and U.S. Census Bureau.
42 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Types of Properties Where Fires Occur

This section describes the proportions of the fire problem by general property type: 

residential structures, nonresidential structures, vehicles, outside properties, and other 

or unknown properties.

Fires and Fire Losses by General Property Type (2014)

Figure 7 describes the proportions of the fire problem in 2014 by general property type. 

Over the years, there has been little change in the proportion of fires, deaths, injuries and 

dollar loss by the type of property involved. In terms of numbers of reported fires, the 

largest category continued to be outside fires (41 percent) — in fields, vacant lots, trash, 

etc. Residential and nonresidential structure fires together constituted 39 percent of fires, 

with residential structure fires outnumbering nonresidential structure fires by over 3 to 

1. What may be surprising is the large percentage of vehicle fires. In fact, approximately 1 

out of every 7 fires to which fire departments responded involved a vehicle.

The largest percentage of reported deaths by far — 75 percent in 2014 — occurred on 

residential properties, with the majority of these on one- and two-family properties. 

Vehicles accounted for the second largest percentage of fire deaths at 16 percent. Only 

4 percent of the 2014 fire deaths occurred in nonresidential commercial and public 

properties. Outside and other miscellaneous fires, including wildfires, were also a small 

factor (5 percent combined) in fire deaths.

Great attention is given to large, multiple-death fires in public places, such as hotels, 

nightclubs and office buildings; however, fires that kill 10 or more people are few in 

number and constitute only a small portion of overall fire deaths. Furthermore, public 

properties are generally required by local codes to have built-in fire suppression systems. 

The area with the largest problem is most commonly overlooked — in people’s homes. 

Prevention efforts continue to focus on home fire safety.

The picture was generally similar for fire injuries, with 78 percent of all reported injuries 

occurring on residential properties. The remaining fire injuries were distributed across 

the other property types — nonresidential properties, 7 percent; vehicles, 6 percent; and 

outside and other fires, 9 percent combined.

The picture changes somewhat for dollar loss. While residential properties were the 

leading property type for dollar loss, nonresidential properties played a considerable 

role. These two general property types accounted for 82 percent of all reported dollar 

loss. The proportion of dollar loss from outside fires may be understated because the 

destruction of trees, grass, etc., is often given zero value in fire incident reports if it is not 

commercial cropland or timber.
The National Fire Problem 43

Figure 7. Fires and Fire Losses by General Property Type (2014)

Fires by General Property Type (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0

Other

Outside

Vehicle

Nonresidential

Residential 30.8

41.1

5.8

13.9

8.4

Percent

Fire Deaths by General Property Type (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0

Other

Outside

Vehicle

Nonresidential

Residential 75.0

2.4

2.2

16.5

3.9

Percent

Fire Injuries by General Property Type (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0

Other

Outside

Vehicle

Nonresidential

Residential 78.0

3.5

5.1

6.2

7.2

Percent
44 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 7. Fires and Fire Losses by General Property Type (2014) — Continued

Fire Dollar Loss by General Property Type (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0

Other

Outside

Vehicle

Nonresidential

Residential 52.1

3.8

2.8

11.4

29.9

Percent

Source: NFIRS.

Fire Casualties and Dollar Loss per Fire by General Property Type (2014)

Figure 8 shows reported fire deaths and injuries per 1,000 fires and dollar loss per fire in 

2014 by general property type: residential structures, nonresidential structures, vehicles, 

outside properties, and other or unknown properties. These indicators represent the 

severity of fires, but they are somewhat ambiguous because they can increase if there are 

more casualties or damage per fire (the numerators) or if fewer minor fires are reported 

(the denominators).

Residential fires had the highest numbers of deaths and injuries per 1,000 fires — another 

important reason for prevention programs to focus on home fire safety. Nonresidential 

structure fires had the highest dollar loss per fire.

Figure 8. Fire Casualties and Dollar Loss per Fire by General Property Type (2014)

Fire Deaths per 1,000 Fires (2014)

0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0

Other

Outside

Vehicle

Nonresidential

Residential 5.5

0.1

0.8

2.7

1.0

Deaths per 1,000 Fires
The National Fire Problem 45

Figure 8. Fire Casualties and Dollar Loss per Fire by General Property Type 

(2014) — Continued

Fire Injuries per 1,000 Fires (2014)

0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0

Other

Outside

Vehicle

Nonresidential

Residential 26.2

0.9

9.2

4.6

8.8

Injuries per 1,000 Fires

Dollar Loss per Fire (2014)

0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0 45.0

Other

Outside

Vehicle

Nonresidential

Residential 16.5

0.9

4.7

8.0

34.7

Dollar Loss per Fire ($ thousands)

Source: NFIRS.

Buildings and Other Properties

This section provides an overview of the fire problem in buildings, vehicles, and other 

mobile properties over the 10-year period from 2005 to 2014.

Buildings

The analysis of building fires is presented in two major sections: residential (including 

one- and two-family dwellings, multifamily dwellings, and other residential buildings) and 

nonresidential (including industrial and commercial properties, institutions, educational 

establishments, mobile properties, and storage properties).
46 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Residential Building Fires and Losses

The term “residential buildings” includes what are commonly referred to as “homes,” 

whether they are one- and two-family dwellings or multifamily buildings. It also includes 

manufactured housing, hotels and motels, residential hotels, dormitories, assisted living 

facilities, and halfway houses — residences for formerly institutionalized individuals 

(mentally impaired patients, drug addicts, or convicts) that are designed to facilitate their 

readjustment to private life. The term “residential buildings” does not include institutions 

such as prisons, nursing homes, juvenile care facilities, or hospitals, though many people 

may reside in them for short or long periods of time.

The residential building portion of the fire problem continues to account for the vast 

majority of civilian casualties. National estimates show that on average from 2005 to 

2014, 96 percent of residential structure fires, 96 percent of associated deaths, 97 percent 

of injuries, and 95 percent of dollar losses occurred in residential buildings. Because 

the majority of structure fires and losses occurred in buildings, the remainder of the 

residential analyses will focus on building fires and their associated losses.

All Residential Buildings

Overall, residential buildings include one- and two-family, multifamily, and other 

residential buildings.44 Annually, from 2005 to 2014, there were an estimated 375,400 

residential building fires. Because these fires resulted in an annual average of 2,620 civilian 

deaths, 13,000 injuries, and $7.6 billion in property loss (adjusted to 2014 dollars) over the 

10 years, the fire problem in U.S. residences is of significant concern.45

Figure 9 shows the 10-year trends for the overall residential building fires and losses. From 

2005 to 2014, trends in residential building fires and losses showed a 3 percent decrease 

in fires, a 4 percent decrease in deaths, a 5 percent decrease in injuries, and a 16 percent 

decrease in dollar loss.

44USFA’s three topical reports that explore facets of the current residential building fire problem, “Residential 

Building Fires (2012-2014),” “One- and Two-Family Residential Building Fires (2012-2014),” and “Multifamily 

Building Fires (2012-2014),” are available at https://www.usfa.fema.gov/data/statistics/reports.html.

45USFA’s Residential Building Fires Estimate Summary Series (2005-2014) is available at https://www.usfa.fema.

gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/res_bldg_fire_estimates.pdf. To download an Excel file of residential building 

fire and fire loss estimates by property use and cause, please visit https://www.usfa.fema.gov/data/statistics/

order_download_data.html (located under the section “Download select data sets”).
The National Fire Problem 47

Figure 9. Trends in Residential Building Fires and Fire Losses (2005-2014)

Fires (thousands)

Year Value

2005 376.5

2006 392.7

2007 390.3

2008 378.2

2009 356.2

2010 362.1

2011 364.5

2012 374.0

2013 380.3

2014 379.5

10-year 

trend (%) -2.5%

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Trend

Fires

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Residential Building Fires (in thousands)

Deaths

Year Value

2005 2,895

2006 2,490

2007 2,765

2008 2,650

2009 2,480

2010 2,555

2011 2,450

2012 2,385

2013 2,755

2014 2,765

10-year 

trend (%) -3.6%

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

Trend

Fire Deaths

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Residential Building Fire Deaths
48 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 9. Trends in Residential Building Fires and Fire Losses (2005-2014) — 

Continued

0

3,000

6,000

9,000

12,000

15,000

Trend

Fire Injuries

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Residential Building Fire Injuries Injuries

Year Value

2005 13,375

2006 12,550

2007 13,525

2008 13,100

2009 12,600

2010 13,275

2011 13,900

2012 13,050

2013 12,450

2014 12,075

10-year 

trend (%) -4.8%

$0.0

$2,000.0

$4,000.0

$6,000.0

$8,000.0

$10,000.0

Trend

Fire Dollar Loss

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Residential Building Fire Dollar Loss (in $M)* Dollar Loss ($M) *

Adjusted to 2014 Dollars

Year Value

2005 $7,875

2006 $7,804

2007 $8,172

2008 $8,820

2009 $8,011

2010 $7,216

2011 $7,000

2012 $7,324

2013 $6,987

2014 $6,900

10-year 

trend (%) -16.4%

Sources: NFPA, NFIRS and CPI.
The National Fire Problem 49

One- and Two-Family Residential Buildings

One- and two-family dwellings are where 74 percent of the people in the U.S. reside.46

The residential building fire profile is, therefore, dominated by this category. One- and 

two-family residential buildings include detached dwellings, manufactured homes, mobile 

homes not in transit, and duplexes.

From 2005 to 2014, one- and two-family residential building fires accounted for 65 percent 

of all residential building fires and dominated the overall residential building fire profile. 

Trends in one- and two-family dwellings showed a 5 percent decrease in fires, a 2 percent 

decrease in deaths, a 10 percent decrease in injuries, and a 19 percent decrease in dollar 

loss from 2005 to 2014 (Figure 10).

Figure 10. Trends in One- and Two-Family Residential Building Fires and Fire 

Losses (2005-2014)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Trend

Fires

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

One- and Two-Family Residential Building Fires 

(in thousands)

Fires (thousands)

Year Value

2005 245.9

2006 253.8

2007 260.7

2008 250.4

2009 234.1

2010 236.9

2011 237.7

2012 242.7

2013 244.7

2014 244.0

10-year 

trend (%) -4.5%

46The U.S. Census Bureau shows that, in 2013, 75.8 percent of occupied housing units were one-unit attached 

and detached structures or mobile homes (87.9 million) (http://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs/

data/2013/ahs-2013-summary-tables/national-summary-report-and-tables---ahs-2013.html, Table C-01-AH 

for occupied housing). Household size was estimated at 2.65 people per household (http://factfinder.census.

gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_13_1YR_DP02&prodType=table, Selected Social 

Characteristics in the U.S., 2013 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates). Thus, 87.9 million housing units 

x 2.65 people per household = 232.9 million people. With the 2013 U.S. population given as 316.4 million, (http://

www.census.gov/popest/data/national/totals/2015/index.html, Annual Estimates of the Resident Population 

for the U.S., Regions, States, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2015 (NST-EST2015-01)), approximately 

73.6 percent of the population lived in what NFIRS defines as one- and two-family housing.
50 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 10. Trends in One- and Two-Family Residential Building Fires and Fire 

Losses (2005-2014) — Continued

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

Trend

Fire Deaths

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

One- and Two-Family Residential Building 

Fire Deaths

Deaths

Year Value

2005 2,225

2006 1,925

2007 2,285

2008 2,160

2009 1,965

2010 2,025

2011 1,945

2012 1,885

2013 2,250

2014 2,195

10-year 

trend (%) -1.5%

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

Trend

Fire Injuries

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

One- and Two-Family Residential Building 

Fire Injuries

Injuries

Year Value

2005 8,950

2006 8,225

2007 9,125

2008 8,400

2009 8,125

2010 8,525

2011 8,925

2012 8,300

2013 7,975

2014 7,550

10-year 

trend (%) -10.2%
The National Fire Problem 51

Figure 10. Trends in One- and Two-Family Residential Building Fires and Fire 

Losses (2005-2014) — Continued 

$0.0

$1,000.0

$2,000.0

$3,000.0

$4,000.0

$5,000.0

$6,000.0

$7,000.0

$8,000.0

Trend

Fire Dollar Loss

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

One- and Two-Family Residential Building 

Fire Dollar Loss (in $M)*

Dollar Loss ($M) *

Adjusted to 2014 Dollars

Year Value

2005 $6,054

2006 $6,081

2007 $6,570

2008 $6,771

2009 $6,290

2010 $5,738

2011 $5,402

2012 $5,705

2013 $5,273

2014 $5,201

10-year 

trend (%) -18.7%

Sources: NFPA, NFIRS and CPI.

Multifamily Residential Buildings

Multifamily residential buildings include structures such as apartments, town houses, 

row houses, condominiums, and other tenement properties. Many multifamily dwellings 

are rental properties, which often fall under more stringent fire prevention statutes and 

tend to be regulated by stricter building codes. From 2005 to 2014, multifamily residential 

building fires accounted for 28 percent of all residential building fires responded to by fire 

departments across the nation.

From 2005 to 2014, trends in multifamily dwellings showed a 1 percent decrease in fires, a 

12 percent decrease in deaths, an 11 percent increase in injuries, and a 7 percent decrease 

in dollar loss (Figure 11). The increase in multifamily dwelling fire injuries is surprising given 

that multifamily buildings tend to have stricter building codes, including the presence of 

smoke alarms and sprinkler systems.
52 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 11. Trends in Multifamily Residential Building Fires and Fire Losses 

(2005-2014)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Trend

Fires

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Multifamily Residential Building Fires

(in thousands)

Fires (thousands)

Year Value

2005 107.0

2006 113.9

2007 104.6

2008 104.1

2009 100.2

2010 102.7

2011 102.8

2012 106.0

2013 109.3

2014 108.7

10-year 

trend (%) -0.6%

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Trend

Fire Deaths

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Multifamily Residential Building Fire Deaths Deaths

Year Value

2005 510

2006 445

2007 405

2008 395

2009 375

2010 425

2011 390

2012 400

2013 390

2014 440

10-year 

trend (%) -12.3%
The National Fire Problem 53

Figure 11. Trends in Multifamily Residential Building Fires and Fire Losses 

(2005-2014) — Continued

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

Trend

Fire Injuries

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Multifamily Residential Building Fire Injuries Injuries

Year Value

2005 3,800

2006 3,725

2007 3,875

2008 4,200

2009 4,050

2010 4,250

2011 4,450

2012 4,325

2013 3,975

2014 4,100

10-year 

trend (%) 10.8%

Multifamily Residential Building Fire 

Dollar Loss (in $M)*

$0.0

$200.0

$400.0

$600.0

$800.0

$1,000.0

$1,200.0

$1,400.0

$1,600.0

Trend

Fire Dollar Loss

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Dollar Loss ($M) *

Adjusted to 2014 Dollars

Year Value

2005 $1,445

2006 $1,372

2007 $1,263

2008 $1,480

2009 $1,363

2010 $1,188

2011 $1,291

2012 $1,278

2013 $1,348

2014 $1,342

10-year 

trend (%) -7.0%

 Sources: NFPA, NFIRS and CPI.
54 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Other Residential Buildings

Other residential buildings include rooming houses, dormitories, residential hotels, 

halfway houses, hotels and motels, and miscellaneous and unclassified buildings reported 

as residences. This category does not include nursing homes, prisons or other institutions; 

these categories are addressed as part of nonresidential buildings. Trends in other 

residential buildings showed a 9 percent increase in fires, a 7 percent decrease in deaths, 

a 26 percent decrease in injuries, and a 13 percent decrease in dollar loss from 2005 to 

2014 (Figure 12).

Figure 12. Trends in Other Residential Building Fires and Fire Losses (2005-2014)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Trend

Fires

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Other Residential Building Fires (in thousands) Fires (thousands)

Year Value

2005 23.7

2006 25.0

2007 25.0

2008 23.7

2009 21.8

2010 22.5

2011 24.0

2012 25.3

2013 26.2

2014 26.8

10-year 

trend (%) 9.2%

0

40

80

120

160

200

Trend

Fire Deaths

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Other Residential Building Fire Deaths Deaths

Year Value

2005 160

2006 125

2007 80

2008 90

2009 140

2010 105

2011 115

2012 100

2013 120

2014 130

10-year 

trend (%) -7.4%
The National Fire Problem 55

Figure 12. Trends in Other Residential Building Fires and Fire Losses (2005-2014) — 

Continued

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Trend

Fire Injuries

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Other Residential Building Fire Injuries Injuries

Year Value

2005 600

2006 600

2007 525

2008 525

2009 425

2010 500

2011 525

2012 425

2013 500

2014 425

10-year 

trend (%) -25.5%

$0.0

$100.0

$200.0

$300.0

$400.0

$500.0

$600.0

Trend

Fire Dollar Loss

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Other Residential Building Fire Dollar Loss 

(in $M)*

Dollar Loss ($M) *

Adjusted to 2014 Dollars

Year Value

2005 $376.1

2006 $350.1

2007 $338.3

2008 $569.1

2009 $358.2

2010 $290.5

2011 $306.8

2012 $341.2

2013 $366.5

2014 $357.0

10-year 

trend (%) -12.6%

Sources: NFPA, NFIRS and CPI.
56 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Nonresidential Buildings

The nonresidential building category includes industrial and commercial properties, 

institutions (such as hospitals, nursing homes and prisons), educational establishments 

(from preschool through university), mobile properties, and storage properties. National 

estimates show that on average from 2005 to 2014, about 89 percent of nonresidential 

structure fires, 88 percent of deaths, 92 percent of injuries, and 92 percent of dollar losses 

occurred in nonresidential buildings.

National estimates of nonresidential building fires and losses, from 2005 to 2014, annually 

accounted for only 7 percent of all fires, 2 percent of deaths, and 8 percent of injuries. 

These properties, however, accounted for a disproportionately large annual dollar loss, 

21 percent.47 Trends in nonresidential buildings showed an 8 percent decrease in fires, a 

6 percent decrease in deaths, a 4 percent decrease in injuries, and a 17 percent decrease 

in dollar loss from 2005 to 2014 (Figure 13).

Figure 13. Trends in Nonresidential Building Fires and Fire Losses (2005-2014)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

Trend

Fires

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Nonresidential Building Fires (in thousands) Fires (thousands)

Year Value

2005 101.4

2006 98.9

2007 103.0

2008 97.1

2009 89.2

2010 84.9

2011 85.4

2012 92.8

2013 93.7

2014 99.5

10-year 

trend (%) -8.0%

47USFA’s Nonresidential Building Fires Estimate Summary Series (2005-2014) is available at https://www.usfa.

fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/nonres_bldg_fire_estimates.pdf. To download an Excel file of nonresidential 

building fire and fire loss estimates by property use and cause, please visit https://www.usfa.fema.gov/data/

statistics/order_download_data.html (located under the section “Download select data sets”).
The National Fire Problem 57

Figure 13. Trends in Nonresidential Building Fires and Fire Losses (2005-2014) — 

Continued

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Trend

Fire Deaths

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Nonresidential Building Fire Deaths Deaths

Year Value

2005 40

2006 75

2007 90

2008 100

2009 90

2010 80

2011 80

2012 65

2013 65

2014 60

10-year 

trend (%) -6.0%

0

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,400

1,600

Trend

Fire Injuries

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Nonresidential Building Fire Injuries Injuries

Year Value

2005 1,400

2006 1,350

2007 1,275

2008 1,250

2009 1,500

2010 1,375

2011 1,100

2012 1,450

2013 1,425

2014 1,200

10-year 

trend (%) -3.9%
58 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 13. Trends in Nonresidential Building Fires and Fire Losses (2005-2014) — 

Continued

$0.0

$500.0

$1,000.0

$1,500.0

$2,000.0

$2,500.0

$3,000.0

$3,500.0

$4,000.0

Trend

Fire Dollar Loss

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Nonresidential Building Fire Dollar Loss 

(in $M)*

Dollar Loss ($M) *

Adjusted to 2014 Dollars

Year Value

2005 $2,591

2006 $2,753

2007 $3,274

2008 $3,796

2009 $3,045

2010 $2,606

2011 $2,563

2012 $2,548

2013 $2,501

2014 $2,576

10-year 

trend (%) -17.1%

Sources: NFPA, NFIRS and CPI.

Notes:	 1. The NFPA estimate of dollar loss in 2008 reflects three industrial property incidents that resulted in $775 million in

property damage.

	 2. Differences in the 2012 and 2014 nonresidential building dollar loss estimates in this figure from those published in the

2005-2014 Fire Estimate Summary Series reflect a change to a reported $600 million loss for a Kentucky educational

property fire in 2014 that was corrected to $6 million and a hospital fire in Michigan resulting in a $15 million dollar

loss in 2012 that was determined to be a false alarm incident and, as a result, excluded from analyses.

Vehicles and Other Mobile Properties

Overall, mobile properties are comprised of vehicles and other mobile properties, which 

include passenger vehicles, construction vehicles, motor homes, recreational vehicles, 

farm machinery, trains, boats, ships and aircraft. Vehicle fires account for a larger portion 

of the fire problem than many people realize. In 2014, vehicles accounted for 16 percent 

of fire deaths overall, 6 percent of fire injuries, 11 percent of dollar losses, and 14 percent 

of all fires reported to NFIRS — approximately 1 in every 7 fires.48

Figures 14 and 15 show the 10-year trends for mobile property fires and losses. Trends in 

overall mobile property fires and losses declined over the 10 years. Figure 15 shows that 

the vast majority of mobile property fires and losses are from highway vehicles. Trends in 

highway vehicles showed a 39 percent decrease in fires, a 42 percent decrease in deaths, a 23 

percent decrease in injuries, and a 13 percent decrease in dollar loss (adjusted for inflation).

48When there are fatalities associated with a mobile property accident, such as a collision between two cars, 

it is often difficult to determine whether the fatalities were the result of the mechanical forces or the fire that 

ensued. Because of the very large number of vehicle fatalities occurring in this country each year and the 

frequency of fires associated with these accidents, there can be a substantial error in estimating the total 

number of fire deaths if this issue is not carefully addressed. A fire fatality should be counted only if a person 

was trapped and killed by the fire, rather than killed on impact and subsequently exposed to the fire.
The National Fire Problem 59

Figure 14. Trends in Mobile Property Fires and Fire Losses (2005-2014)

0.0

50.0

100.0

150.0

200.0

250.0

300.0

350.0

Trend

Fires

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Mobile Property Fires (in thousands) Fires (thousands)

Year Value

2005 290.0

2006 278.0

2007 258.0

2008 236.0

2009 219.0

2010 215.5

2011 219.0

2012 202.5

2013 188.0

2014 193.5

10-year 

trend (%) -35.7%

0.0

100.0

200.0

300.0

400.0

500.0

600.0

Trend

Fire Deaths

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Mobile Property Fire Deaths Deaths

Year Value

2005 520

2006 490

2007 385

2008 365

2009 280

2010 310

2011 300

2012 325

2013 320

2014 345

10-year 

trend (%) -39.0%
60 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 14. Trends in Mobile Property Fires and Fire Losses (2005-2014) — Continued

0.0

200.0

400.0

600.0

800.0

1,000.0

1,200.0

1,400.0

1,600.0

1,800.0

Trend

Fire Injuries

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Mobile Property Fire Injuries Injuries

Year Value

2005 1,650

2006 1,200

2007 1,675

2008 1,065

2009 1,610

2010 1,590

2011 1,190

2012 975

2013 1,050

2014 1,450

10-year 

trend (%) -21.7%

$1,200.0

$1,300.0

$1,400.0

$1,500.0

$1,600.0

$1,700.0

$1,800.0

$1,900.0

Trend

Fire Dollar Loss

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Mobile Property Fire Dollar Loss (in $M)* Dollar Loss ($M) *

Adjusted to 2014 Dollars

Year Value

2005 $1,597.6

2006 $1,548.9

2007 $1,611.0

2008 $1,642.7

2009 $1,501.8

2010 $1,493.9

2011 $1,420.8

2012 $1,895.2

2013 $1,414.6

2014 $1,522.0

10-year 

trend (%) -3.0%

Sources: NFPA and CPI.

Note:	 The 2012 spike in dollar loss reflects the $400 million property damage to the USS Miami (submarine).
The National Fire Problem 61

Figure 15. Trends in Highway Vehicle Versus Other Mobile Property Fires and Fire 

Losses (2005-2014)

Highway Vehicle Versus Other Mobile Property 

Fires (in thousands)

0.0

50.0

100.0

150.0

200.0

250.0

300.0

350.0

Trend

Other Mobile Property Fires

Trend

Highway Vehicle Fires

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Other Mobile Property

Highway Vehicle

Fires (thousands)

Year

Highway 

Vehicle 

Value

Other 

Mobile 

Value

2005 259.0 31.0

2006 250.0 28.0

2007 227.5 30.5

2008 207.0 29.0

2009 190.5 28.5

2010 184.5 31.0

2011 187.5 31.5

2012 172.5 30.0

2013 164.0 24.0

2014 167.5 26.0

10-year 

trend (%) -38.6% -11.6%

Highway Vehicle Versus Other Mobile Property 

Fire Deaths

0.0

50.0

100.0

150.0

200.0

250.0

300.0

350.0

400.0

450.0

500.0

550.0

Trend

Other Mobile Property 

Fire Deaths

Trend

Highway Vehicle 

Fire Deaths

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Other Mobile Property

Highway Vehicle

Deaths

Year

Highway 

Vehicle 

Value

Other 

Mobile 

Value

2005 500 20

2006 445 45

2007 365 20

2008 350 15

2009 260 20

2010 285 25

2011 270 30

2012 300 25

2013 300 20

2014 310 35

10-year 

trend (%) -41.7% 7.8%
62 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 15. Trends in Highway Vehicle Versus Other Mobile Property Fires and Fire 

Losses (2005-2014) — Continued

Highway Vehicle Versus Other Mobile Property 

Fire Injuries

0.0

200.0

400.0

600.0

800.0

1,000.0

1,200.0

1,400.0

1,600.0

Trend

Other Mobile Property Fire Injuries

Trend

Highway Vehicle Fire Injuries

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Other Mobile Property

Highway Vehicle

Injuries

Year

Highway 

Vehicle 

Value

Other 

Mobile 

Value

2005 1,450 200

2006 1,075 125

2007 1,500 175

2008 850 215

2009 1,455 155

2010 1,440 150

2011 1,020 170

2012 800 175

2013 925 125

2014 1,275 175

10-year 

trend (%) -23.0% -11.3%

Highway Vehicle Versus Other Mobile Property 

Fire Dollar Loss (in $M)*

$0.0

$200.0

$400.0

$600.0

$800.0

$1,000.0

$1,200.0

$1,400.0

$1,600.0

Trend

Other Mobile Property Fire

Dollar Loss

Trend

Highway Vehicle Fire 

Dollar Loss

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Other Mobile Property

Highway Vehicle

Dollar Loss ($M) *

Adjusted to 2014 Dollars

Year

Highway 

Vehicle 

Value

Other 

Mobile 

Value

2005 $1,271.6 $326.1

2006 $1,153.1 $395.7

2007 $1,235.4 $375.6

2008 $1,283.2 $359.6

2009 $1,163.1 $338.8

2010 $1,071.6 $422.3

2011 $1,069.3 $351.5

2012 $1,128.0 $767.1

2013 $1,077.2 $337.4

2014 $1,142.0 $380.0

10-year 

trend (%) -13.1% 32.8%

Sources: NFPA and CPI.

Note:	 The 2012 spike in dollar loss for other mobile property fires reflects the $400 million property damage to the USS Miami

(submarine).
The National Fire Problem 63

Outside and Other Properties

The “Outside and Other Properties” category includes all fires that did not occur in 

buildings, other structures, or vehicles. In NFIRS terminology, this includes fires that 

occurred outside of structures, either where the burning material had a value or where 

the fires were confined to trees, brush, grass or refuse. A subset of outside fires is wildland 

fires. Grouped in the “Other” category are fires that were not specifically classified or were 

considered to be outside gas or vapor combustion incidents.

Outside and other fires constituted roughly half of all fires. These numbers may not, 

however, reflect the true nature of the problem because of under-reporting and the 

difficulty in setting a price tag on outside fires. Also, many wildland fires are not reported 

to agencies reporting to NFIRS or to the NFPA annual survey.

Figure 16 shows the 10-year trends for outside and other property type fires and losses. 

The numbers of reported outside fires alone were enormous — averaging 592,100 over 

the 10-year period. The “Other” category of fires added, on average, an additional 102,700 

fires to this already large number. Over 10 years, an average of 55 deaths resulted each 

year from outside fires plus the miscellaneous other properties not covered elsewhere; 

injuries averaged 775. Although deaths showed an upward trend of 51 percent, this is due 

primarily to the fluctuations in the small numbers of deaths. Injuries showed an upward 

trend of less than 1 percent. Dollar loss for only outside properties increased 49 percent, 

partly due to several large-loss incidents in 2007 and 2010 to 2013.49 Without these fires, 

dollar loss from outside fires decreased 36 percent over the 10 years.

Estimating dollar loss for these fires is difficult.50 In addition, part of the difference in 

property loss estimates is because NFPA estimates property loss only for outside fires 

“with value,” whereas NFIRS permits property loss data collection for any fire. Which 

method is correct? Both are reasonable approaches, but neither may be definitive. 

Moreover, when there are large-loss fires, these fires may not necessarily be reported 

to NFIRS.

49Karter, Jr., Michael J., “Fire Loss in the United States” (2007, 2010-2012, 2014), NFPA. There were three largeloss incidents that totaled $525 million in damage in 2007; the Fourmile Canyon Wildfire in Colorado, which 

totaled $217 million in damage in 2010; the Bastrop County, Texas, Complex Wildfire, which totaled $400 million 

in damage in 2011; the Waldo Canyon Fire and the High Park Fire in Colorado, accounting for a total of $567.4 

million in damage in 2012; and the Black Forest Fire in Colorado, which totaled $420.5 million in damage in 

2013 noted in the 2014 NFPA report.

50Setting a value for outside fire damage is always a problem. It is difficult to assign a dollar value to grass, tree 

and rubbish fires, yet the damage from these fires often requires labor beyond that of the fire department 

to clean up and restore the area. They also cause aesthetic problems that are intangible. Some outside 

fires spread to structural properties and may be reported as structural fires rather than outside fires with 

exposure to structures. Outside fires can have other indirect costs, such as the financial impact on agricultural 

communities where a fire destroys crops. Forest fires and other wildfires to which local departments are not 

called will not be reported to NFIRS if the state or federal agency with principal authority for fighting the fire 

does not participate in NFIRS. To better analyze outside fires, NFIRS data needs to be complemented with data 

from these other agencies.
64 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 16. Trends in Outside and Other Property Type Fires and Fire Losses 

(2005-2014)

Outside and Other Property Type Fires 

(in thousands)

0.0

100.0

200.0

300.0

400.0

500.0

600.0

700.0

800.0

Trend

Other Property Type Fires

Trend

Outside Fires

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Other Property Type

Outside

Fires (thousands)

Year Outside 

Value

Other 

Value

2005 672.5 128.5

2006 710.0 130.5

2007 646.5 122.5

2008 594.0 106.5

2009 546.0 103.0

2010 549.5 84.5

2011 597.5 88.5

2012 612.0 80.0

2013 479.5 85.0

2014 513.0 97.5

10-year 

trend (%) -25.7% -38.0%

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

Trend

Outside and 

Other Property 

Type Fire Deaths

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Outside and Other Property Type Fire Deaths Deaths

Year Outside and 

Other Value

2005 50

2006 50

2007 45

2008 55

2009 35

2010 55

2011 65

2012 60

2013 65

2014 70

10-year 

trend (%) 51.0%
The National Fire Problem 65

Figure 16. Trends in Outside and Other Property Type Fires and Fire Losses 

(2005-2014) — Continued

0.0

200.0

400.0

600.0

800.0

1,000.0

Trend

Outside and 

Other Property 

Type Fire Injuries

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Outside and Other Property Type Fire Injuries Injuries

Year Outside and 

Other Value

2005 950

2006 850

2007 650

2008 680

2009 700

2010 710

2011 675

2012 825

2013 800

2014 900

10-year 

trend (%) 0.5%

Outside and Other Property Type Fire 

Dollar Loss (in $M)*

$0.0

$100.0

$200.0

$300.0

$400.0

$500.0

$600.0

$700.0

$800.0

$900.0

Trend

Other Property Type 

Fire Dollar Loss

Trend

Outside Fire Dollar Loss

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Other Property Type

Outside

Dollar Loss ($M) *

Adjusted to 2014 Dollars

Year Outside

Value

Other 

Value

2005 $112.7 $82.4

2006 $307.7 $105.7

2007 $807.2 $94.8

2008 $141.8 $103.4

2009 $280.3 $81.7

2010 $448.4 $95.5

2011 $569.4 $78.9

2012 $749.6 $88.7

2013 $528.4 $88.4

2014 $141.0 $96.0

10-year

trend (%) 49.3% -5.1%

Sources: NFPA and CPI.

Note:	 The large increase in the trend for outside and other property type fire deaths is due primarily to the fluctuations in the

small numbers of deaths.
66 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Causes of Fires and Losses

The following sections show, by property type, the fire cause profiles for 2014 of the major 

causes of fires and fires that resulted in losses: fatal fires, fires resulting in injuries, and 

fires resulting in dollar loss.51

Causes of Residential Building Fires

Figure 17 shows the cause profiles for residential building fires and fires resulting in 

losses. Cooking, at 50 percent, was the leading cause of residential building fires. Heating 

caused another 13 percent. These percentages (and those that follow) are adjusted, which 

proportionally spreads the unknown causes over the other 15 cause categories.

The two leading causes of residential fatal fires were other unintentional or careless 

actions at 15 percent and smoking at 13 percent. The leading cause of residential fires that 

resulted in injuries was cooking (37 percent). Cooking was also the leading cause of fires 

resulting in dollar loss at 28 percent, followed by electrical malfunction at 12 percent.52

51In principle, it is the cause of the fire that results in deaths and injuries which should be analyzed, not the 

numbers of deaths and injuries associated with fire causes.

52Causes of residential building fires are presented in more detail as part of the USFA’s Residential Building 

Fires Estimate Summary Series (2005-2014) available at https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/

res_bldg_fire_estimates.pdf. To download an Excel file of residential building fire and fire loss estimates by 

property use and cause, please visit https://www.usfa.fema.gov/data/statistics/order_download_data.html 

(located under the section “Download select data sets”).
The National Fire Problem 67

Figure 17. Causes of Residential Building Fires and Fires Resulting in Losses (2014)

Percent

Residential Building Fire Causes (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0

Reported

Unknowns 

Apportioned

Unknown

Cause under

 investigation

Other unintentional,

 careless

Equipment

 misoperation, failure

Exposure

Natural

Other equipment

Other heat

Open flame

Appliances

Electrical

 malfunction

Cooking

Heating

Smoking

Playing with

 heat source

Intentional

Cause Reported Unknowns 

Apportioned

Intentional 3.5 4.2

Playing with 

heat source 0.4 0.4

Smoking 1.7 2.0

Heating 10.5 12.5

Cooking 42.0 50.0

Electrical 

malfunction 5.3 6.3

Appliances 3.6 4.2

Open flame 3.7 4.4

Other heat 2.7 3.2

Other 

equipment 1.0 1.2

Natural 1.3 1.6

Exposure 1.6 2.0

Equipment 

misoperation, 

failure

0.8 0.9

Other 

unintentional, 

careless

4.9 5.8

Cause under 

investigation 1.0 1.2

Unknown 16.1 0.0

Total 100.0 100.0
68 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 17. Causes of Residential Building Fires and Fires Resulting in Losses 

(2014) — Continued

Percent

Residential Building Fatal Fire Causes 

(2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0

Reported

Unknowns 

Apportioned

Unknown

Cause under

 investigation

Other unintentional,

 careless

Equipment 

misoperation, failure

Exposure

Natural

Other equipment

Other heat

Open flame

Appliances

Electrical

 malfunction

Cooking

Heating

Smoking

Playing with

 heat source

Intentional

Cause Reported Unknowns 

Apportioned

Intentional 4.6 8.9

Playing with 

heat source 0.3 0.6

Smoking 6.6 12.8

Heating 4.1 8.1

Cooking 4.6 8.9

Electrical 

malfunction 5.6 11.0

Appliances 1.7 3.4

Open flame 3.2 6.1

Other heat 4.3 8.4

Other 

equipment 1.1 2.1

Natural 0.2 0.5

Exposure 0.4 0.8

Equipment 

misoperation, 

failure

0.6 1.1

Other 

unintentional, 

careless

7.8 15.2

Cause under 

investigation 6.1 12.0

Unknown 48.7 0.0

Total 100.0 100.0
The National Fire Problem 69

Figure 17. Causes of Residential Building Fires and Fires Resulting in Losses 

(2014) — Continued

Percent

Causes of Residential Building Fires 

Resulting in Injuries (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0

Reported

Unknowns 

Apportioned

Unknown

Cause under

 investigation

Other unintentional,

 careless

Equipment

misoperation, failure

Exposure

Natural

Other equipment

Other heat

Open flame

Appliances

Electrical

 malfunction

Cooking

Heating

Smoking

Playing with

 heat source

Intentional

Cause Reported Unknowns 

Apportioned

Intentional 4.0 5.1

Playing with 

heat source 1.1 1.4

Smoking 5.0 6.3

Heating 5.6 7.0

Cooking 29.5 37.2

Electrical 

malfunction 5.5 7.0

Appliances 5.2 6.6

Open flame 6.7 8.4

Other heat 4.4 5.6

Other 

equipment 1.1 1.4

Natural 0.9 1.1

Exposure 0.3 0.4

Equipment 

misoperation, 

failure

0.9 1.1

Other 

unintentional, 

careless

6.7 8.4

Cause under 

investigation 2.4 3.0

Unknown 20.7 0.0

Total 100.0 100.0
70 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 17. Causes of Residential Building Fires and Fires Resulting in Losses 

(2014) — Continued

Percent

Causes of Residential Building Fires 

Resulting in Dollar Loss (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0

Reported

Unknowns 

Apportioned

Unknown

Cause under

 investigation

Other unintentional,

 careless

Equipment

 misoperation, failure

Exposure

Natural

Other equipment

Other heat

Open flame

Appliances

Electrical

 malfunction

Cooking

Heating

Smoking

Playing with

 heat source

Intentional

Cause Reported Unknowns 

Apportioned

Intentional 5.1 6.5

Playing with 

heat source 0.6 0.8

Smoking 2.9 3.7

Heating 6.9 8.6

Cooking 22.3 28.0

Electrical 

malfunction 9.2 11.5

Appliances 6.1 7.7

Open flame 5.5 6.9

Other heat 4.3 5.4

Other 

equipment 1.2 1.5

Natural 2.2 2.8

Exposure 3.0 3.8

Equipment 

misoperation, 

failure

1.1 1.4

Other 

unintentional, 

careless

7.4 9.3

Cause under 

investigation 1.7 2.2

Unknown 20.4 0.0

Total 100.0 100.0

Source: NFIRS.

Notes:	 1. Adjusted percentages (percentages with unknowns apportioned) proportionally spread the fire incidents with unknown

causes over the other 15 cause categories.

	 2. A large percentage of residential building fatal fire incidents reported to NFIRS (49 percent) did not have sufficient

information to determine the cause of the fire.
The National Fire Problem 71

Causes of Nonresidential Building Fires

Figure 18 shows the cause profiles for nonresidential building fires and fires resulting 

in dollar loss. Due to the small numbers of nonresidential building fatal fires and 

fires resulting in injuries reported to NFIRS, and the large percentage of those fires 

with insufficient information to determine fire cause, the distribution of causes for 

nonresidential building fatal fires and fires resulting in injuries is not shown.

For nonresidential building fires, cooking was the leading cause of fires (29 percent), 

followed by other unintentional or careless actions (10 percent). Electrical malfunctions, 

other unintentional or careless actions and cooking were the leading causes of fires 

resulting in dollar loss in nonresidential buildings, each at 12 percent.53

Figure 18. Causes of Nonresidential Building Fires and Fires Resulting in Dollar 

Loss (2014)

Percent

Nonresidential Building Fire Causes 

(2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0

Reported

Unknowns 

Apportioned

Unknown

Cause under

 investigation

Other unintentional,

 careless

Equipment

 misoperation, failure

Exposure

Natural

Other equipment

Other heat

Open flame

Appliances

Electrical

 malfunction

Cooking

Heating

Smoking

Playing with

 heat source

Intentional

Cause Reported Unknowns 

Apportioned

Intentional 5.8 8.9

Playing with 

heat source 0.2 0.4

Smoking 1.4 2.1

Heating 6.0 9.0

Cooking 19.2 29.1

Electrical 

malfunction 5.3 8.1

Appliances 3.2 4.9

Open flame 4.0 6.1

Other heat 3.4 5.1

Other 

equipment 3.1 4.7

Natural 2.2 3.4

Exposure 2.9 4.4

Equipment 

misoperation, 

failure

1.6 2.5

Other 

unintentional, 

careless

6.6 10.0

Cause under 

investigation 1.0 1.6

Unknown 34.1 0.0

Total 100.0 100.0

53Causes of nonresidential building fires are presented in more detail as part of USFA’s Nonresidential Building 

Fires Estimate Summary Series (2005-2014), available at https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/statistics/

nonres_bldg_fire_estimates.pdf. To download an Excel file of nonresidential building fire and fire loss estimates 

by property use and cause, please visit https://www.usfa.fema.gov/data/statistics/order_download_data.html 

(located under the section “Download select data sets”).
72 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 18. Causes of Nonresidential Building Fires and Fires Resulting in Dollar 

Loss (2014) — Continued

Percent

Causes of Nonresidential Building Fires 

Resulting in Dollar Loss (2014)

0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0

Reported

Unknowns 

Apportioned

Unknown

Cause under

 investigation

Other unintentional,

 careless

Equipment misoperation, failure

Exposure

Natural

Other equipment

Other heat

Open flame

Appliances

Electrical

 malfunction

Cooking

Heating

Smoking

Playing with

 heat source

Intentional

Cause Reported Unknowns 

Apportioned

Intentional 6.5 8.8

Playing with 

heat source 0.3 0.5

Smoking 1.4 2.0

Heating 6.0 8.2

Cooking 8.7 11.8

Electrical 

malfunction 9.1 12.3

Appliances 5.4 7.4

Open flame 5.1 6.9

Other heat 4.6 6.2

Other 

equipment 4.2 5.7

Natural 3.4 4.6

Exposure 5.6 7.6

Equipment 

misoperation, 

failure

2.5 3.4

Other 

unintentional, 

careless

9.0 12.3

Cause under 

investigation 1.8 2.5

Unknown 26.4 0.0

Total 100.0 100.0

Source: NFIRS.

Note:	 Adjusted percentages (percentages with unknowns apportioned) proportionally spread the fire incidents with unknown

causes over the other 15 cause categories.

Causes of Vehicle Fires

Figure 19 shows the cause profiles for vehicle fires and fires resulting in dollar loss. Due 

to the small numbers of vehicle fatal fires and fires resulting in injuries reported to NFIRS, 

the distribution of causes for vehicle fatal fires and fires resulting in injuries is not shown.

Unintentional actions were the leading cause of fires and fires resulting in dollar loss 

in vehicles (each at 37 percent). The cause of vehicle fires was undetermined after the 

investigation in 23 percent of vehicle fires. Failure of equipment or heat source was the 

second leading cause of fires resulting in dollar loss at 22 percent.
The National Fire Problem 73

Figure 19. Causes of Vehicle Fires and Fires Resulting in Dollar Loss (2014)

Percent

Vehicle Fire Causes (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0

Reported

Unknowns 

Apportioned

Unknown

Exposure

Intentional

Unintentional

Failure of equipment

 or heat source

Act of nature

Cause under investigation

Cause undetermined

 after investigation

Cause Reported Unknowns 

Apportioned

Cause 

undetermined 

after 

investigation

23.1 23.2

Cause under 

investigation 9.9 10.0

Act of nature 0.3 0.3

Failure of 

equipment or 

heat source

21.2 21.3

Unintentional 37.1 37.4

Intentional 5.0 5.0

Exposure 2.8 2.8

Unknown 0.6 0.0

Total 100.0 100.0

Percent

Causes of Vehicle Fires Resulting in 

Dollar Loss (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0

Reported

Unknowns 

Apportioned

Unknown

Exposure

Intentional

Unintentional

Failure of equipment

 or heat source

Act of nature

Cause under investigation

Cause undetermined

 after investigation

Cause Reported Unknowns 

Apportioned

Cause 

undetermined 

after 

investigation

21.5 21.6

Cause under 

investigation 9.6 9.6

Act of nature 0.2 0.2

Failure of 

equipment or 

heat source

22.3 22.3

Unintentional 36.8 36.9

Intentional 5.7 5.8

Exposure 3.6 3.6

Unknown 0.3 0.0

Total 100.0 100.0

Source: NFIRS.

Note:	 Adjusted percentages (percentages with unknowns apportioned) proportionally spread the fire incidents with unknown

causes over the other seven cause categories.
74 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Causes of Outside Fires

Figure 20 shows the cause profiles for outside fires and fires resulting in dollar loss. Due to 

the small numbers of outside fatal fires and fires resulting in injuries reported to NFIRS, and 

the large percentage of those fires with insufficient information to determine fire cause, 

the distribution of causes for outside fatal fires and fires resulting in injuries is not shown.

Unintentional actions were the leading cause of fires and fires resulting in dollar loss 

in outside fires (43 and 41 percent, respectively). Causes were undetermined after the 

investigation in 26 percent of outside fires and 23 percent of outside fires resulting in 

dollar loss.

Figure 20. Causes of Outside Fires and Fires Resulting in Dollar Loss (2014)

Percent

Outside Fire Causes (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0

Reported

Unknowns 

Apportioned

Unknown

Exposure

Intentional

Unintentional

Failure of equipment

 or heat source

Act of nature

Cause under investigation

Cause undetermined

 after investigation

Cause Reported Unknowns 

Apportioned

Cause 

undetermined 

after 

investigation

14.8 26.3

Cause under 

investigation 2.6 4.7

Act of nature 2.3 4.1

Failure of 

equipment or 

heat source

1.9 3.5

Unintentional 24.3 43.2

Intentional 10.0 17.8

Exposure 0.3 0.5

Unknown 43.8 0.0

Total 100.0 100.0
The National Fire Problem 75

Figure 20. Causes of Outside Fires and Fires Resulting in Dollar Loss (2014) — 

Continued

Percent

Causes of Outside Fires Resulting in 

Dollar Loss (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0

Reported

Unknowns 

Apportioned

Unknown

Exposure

Intentional

Unintentional

Failure of equipment

 or heat source

Act of nature

Cause under investigation

Cause undetermined

 after investigation

Cause Reported Unknowns 

Apportioned

Cause 

undetermined 

after 

investigation

14.9 23.4

Cause under 

investigation 4.2 6.6

Act of nature 2.0 3.2

Failure of 

equipment or 

heat source

5.9 9.3

Unintentional 26.1 41.1

Intentional 8.6 13.5

Exposure 1.8 2.9

Unknown 36.6 0.0

Total 100.0 100.0

Source: NFIRS.

Notes:	 1. Adjusted percentages (percentages with unknowns apportioned) proportionally spread the fire incidents with unknown

causes over the other seven cause categories.

	 2. A large percentage of outside fire incidents reported to NFIRS (44 percent) did not have sufficient information to

determine the cause of the fire.

Causes of Other Fires

Figure 21 shows the cause profiles for other fires and fires resulting in dollar loss. Due 

to the small numbers of other fatal fires and fires resulting in injuries reported to NFIRS, 

the distribution of causes for other fatal fires and fires resulting in injuries is not shown.

Just as with vehicle and outside fires, unintentional actions were the leading cause of 

other fires and fires resulting in dollar loss (46 and 48 percent, respectively). Failure of 

equipment or heat source was the second leading cause of other fires (20 percent) and 

other fires resulting in dollar loss (26 percent).
76 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 21. Causes of Other Fires and Fires Resulting in Dollar Loss (2014)

Percent

Causes of Other Fires (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0

Reported

Unknowns 

Apportioned

Unknown

Exposure

Intentional

Unintentional

Failure of equipment

 or heat source

Act of nature

Cause under investigation

Cause undetermined

 after investigation

Cause Reported Unknowns 

Apportioned

Cause 

undetermined 

after 

investigation

15.8 16.1

Cause under 

investigation 6.9 7.0

Act of nature 2.3 2.4

Failure of 

equipment or 

heat source

19.2 19.6

Unintentional 44.7 45.6

Intentional 8.3 8.5

Exposure 0.7 0.7

Unknown 1.9 0.0

Total 100.0 100.0

Percent

Causes of Other Fires Resulting in 

Dollar Loss (2014)

0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0

Reported

Unknowns 

Apportioned

Unknown

Exposure

Intentional

Unintentional

Failure of equipment

 or heat source

Act of nature

Cause under investigation

Cause undetermined

 after investigation

Cause Reported Unknowns 

Apportioned

Cause 

undetermined 

after 

investigation

11.3 11.4

Cause under 

investigation 6.3 6.3

Act of nature 1.1 1.1

Failure of 

equipment or 

heat source

25.9 26.0

Unintentional 47.9 48.1

Intentional 5.4 5.4

Exposure 1.7 1.7

Unknown 0.5 0.0

Total 100.0 100.0

Source: NFIRS.

Note:	 Adjusted percentages (percentages with unknowns apportioned) proportionally spread the fire incidents with unknown

causes over the other seven cause categories.
The National Fire Problem 77

Fire Casualties

Fire casualties affect all groups and races, rich and poor, Northern and Southern, urban 

and rural. But the problem is greater for some groups than for others.

Fire casualties across population groups can be assessed in several ways. The simplest 

method is to look at the distribution of the numbers of deaths or injuries across the 

factor of interest. For example, in the case of race in 2014, the number of fire deaths was 

greatest for white Americans and least for Asians/Pacific Islanders. In the case of age, 

percentages of fire deaths were greatest for those ages 55 to 64, while 64 percent of fire 

injuries occurred among adults ages 20 to 59.

Although these findings are informative, they do not account for differences in the basic 

population groups under comparison. In the case of age, as an age group matures, its 

population of individuals decreases as a result of deaths. In the case of race, there are far 

fewer American Indians/Alaska Natives, for example, than white Americans living in the 

U.S. As a consequence, it is possible for an age group to have greater (or fewer) injuries 

or deaths because the sheer number of individuals for whom it is possible to be injured 

is larger (or smaller) than other groups.

To account for population differences such as these, per capita rates are used. Per capita 

rates use a common population size, which then permits comparisons between different 

groups.54 Perhaps the most useful way to assess fire casualties across groups is to 

determine the relative risk of dying or being injured. Relative risk compares the per capita 

rate for a particular group (e.g., females) to the overall per capita rate (i.e., the general 

population). For the general population in the U.S., the relative risk is set at 1.

Fire Deaths

In 2014, according to NCHS, 3,428 deaths were caused by fire.55,56 The risk of death from 

fire is not the same for everyone. When determining fire risk, geographic, demographic 

and socioeconomic factors all come into play.57

State Profiles

The fire problem varies from region to region and state to state in the U.S. This is often 

a result of climate, poverty, education, demographics, and other factors. Table 8 lists the 

2014 civilian fire deaths, fire death rates per million population, and relative risk by state.

54Per capita rates are determined by the number of deaths or injuries occurring to a specific population group 

divided by the total population for that group. This ratio is then multiplied by a common population size. For 

the purposes of this report, per capita rates for fire deaths and injuries are measured per 1 million people.

55NCHS, 2014 Mortality Data File, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through 

the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program.

56For each reported death certificate in the U.S., NCHS assigns codes for all reported conditions leading to 

death. Based on NCHS mortality data, there were 3,428 fire-related deaths in 2014. These included all deaths 

in which exposure to fire, fire products or explosion was the underlying cause of death or was a contributing 

factor in the chain of events leading to death. This latter condition is an expanded approach to capturing fire 

and fire-related deaths. With this current approach, deaths where such exposures were a contributing factor 

(i.e., the death may not have occurred without the exposure) can be captured. The codes included in the 

mortality statistics are F63.1, W39 to W40, X00 to X09, X75 to X76, X96 to X97, Y25 to Y26 and Y35.1.

57For more information on U.S. fire deaths, fire death rates, and the risk of dying in a fire, visit https://www.usfa.

fema.gov/data/statistics/fire_death_rates.html. Additionally, USFA’s topical report “Fire Risk in 2014” focuses 

on how fire risk, specifically the risk of death and injury, varies with age and how other demographic and 

socioeconomic factors weigh upon that risk. This report is available at https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/

pdf/statistics/v17i7.pdf.
78 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Five states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia) and the District 

of Columbia had fire death rates that exceeded 20 deaths per million population. Nineteen 

states, mostly situated in the Southeast and Midwest, had death rates between 11 and 20 

deaths per million population. Additionally, 19 states had fire death rates at or below the 

national fire death rate (i.e., 10.7 deaths per million population). While some state death 

rates were still high, overall, states have made great progress in lowering the absolute 

number of fire deaths and deaths per million population.58

Figure 22 ranks the order of states by relative risk of civilian fire death in 2014. In addition 

to the District of Columbia, the states with the highest relative risk of fire death in 2014 

included Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia. The populace of Mississippi was 2.2 

times more likely to die in a fire than the general population; however, people living in 

California were 50 percent less likely to die in a fire than the population as a whole. Where 

relative risk was computed, 24 states and the District of Columbia had a relative risk 

higher than that of the general population. Three states —Nebraska, Rhode Island and 

Virginia — had a relative risk comparable to that of the general population. In 16 states, 

the relative risk was lower than that of the general population.

Table 8. Fire Deaths, Rates and Relative Risk by State (2014)

State of 

Occurrence

Fire 

Deaths

Fire Death Rate 

Per Million 

Population 

(Crude Rate)

Relative 

Risk

Alabama 100 20.6 1.9

Alaska** 13 17.6 1.6

Arizona 46 6.8 0.6

Arkansas 52 17.5 1.6

California 192 4.9 0.5

Colorado 31 5.8 0.5

Connecticut 29 8.1 0.8

Delaware** 11 11.8 1.1

District of Columbia** 14 21.2 2.0

Florida 140 7.0 0.7

Georgia 158 15.6 1.5

Hawaii * * *

Idaho * * *

Illinois 130 10.1 0.9

Indiana 106 16.1 1.5

Iowa 47 15.1 1.4

Kansas 48 16.5 1.5

Kentucky 71 16.1 1.5

58This analysis includes only states where fire death rates were computed. Fire death rates were not computed 

for Hawaii, Idaho, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming due to very small 

numbers of fire deaths (fewer than 10 deaths). The fire death rates presented here reflect the crude death 

rates and are not age adjusted. The crude death rate is the total number of fire deaths per state divided by the 

total population per state and multiplied by one million.
The National Fire Problem 79

Table 8. Fire Deaths, Rates and Relative Risk by State (2014) — Continued

State of 

Occurrence

Fire 

Deaths

Fire Death Rate 

Per Million 

Population 

(Crude Rate)

Relative 

Risk

Louisiana 84 18.1 1.7

Maine 21 15.8 1.5

Maryland 55 9.2 0.9

Massachusetts 43 6.4 0.6

Michigan 141 14.2 1.3

Minnesota 48 8.8 0.8

Mississippi 71 23.7 2.2

Missouri 91 15.0 1.4

Montana** 14 13.7 1.3

Nebraska 20 10.6 1.0

Nevada 20 7.0 0.7

New Hampshire * * *

New Jersey 68 7.6 0.7

New Mexico 27 12.9 1.2

New York 175 8.9 0.8

North Carolina 141 14.2 1.3

North Dakota * * *

Ohio 134 11.6 1.1

Oklahoma 87 22.4 2.1

Oregon 48 12.1 1.1

Pennsylvania 185 14.5 1.3

Rhode Island** 11 10.4 1.0

South Carolina 73 15.1 1.4

South Dakota * * *

Tennessee 134 20.5 1.9

Texas 236 8.7 0.8

Utah 23 7.8 0.7

Vermont * * *

Virginia 88 10.6 1.0

Washington 60 8.5 0.8

West Virginia 39 21.1 2.0

Wisconsin 54 9.4 0.9

Wyoming * * *

United States 3,428 10.7 1.0

*Indicates states where fire death rates and relative risk were not computed due to very small numbers of fire deaths (fewer than

10 deaths).

**Indicates fire death rates should be used with caution due to small numbers of deaths. Per the NCHS, National Vital Statistics

Reports, Volume 60, Number 4, “Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2010,” a rate or percentage is based on at least 20 deaths. Rates 

based on fewer than 20 deaths are considered highly variable.
80 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 22. Rank Order of States by Relative Risk of Civilian Fire Death (2014)

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0

Mississippi

Oklahoma

District of Columbia

West Virginia

Alabama

Tennessee

Louisiana

Alaska

Arkansas

Kansas

Kentucky

Indiana

Maine

Georgia

South Carolina

Iowa

Missouri

Pennsylvania

Michigan

North Carolina

Montana

New Mexico

Oregon

Delaware

Ohio

Nebraska

Virginia

Rhode Island

Illinois

Wisconsin

Maryland

New York

Minnesota

Texas

Washington

Connecticut

Utah

New Jersey

Nevada

Florida

Arizona

Massachusetts

Colorado

California

2.2

2.1

2.0

2.0

1.9

1.9

1.7

1.6

1.6

1.5

1.5

1.5

1.5

1.5

1.4

1.4

1.4

1.3

1.3

1.3

1.3

1.2

1.1

1.1

1.1

1.0

1.0

1.0

0.9

0.9

0.9

0.8

0.8

0.8

0.8

0.8

0.7

0.7

0.7

0.7

0.6

0.6

0.5

0.5

Relative Risk

Relative Risk = 1.0

Source: 2014 NCHS Mortality Data File, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital 

Statistics Cooperative Program and U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.

Note: Relative risk is not shown for Hawaii, Idaho, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming due to 

small numbers of fire deaths (fewer than 10).
The National Fire Problem 81

Age

Figure 23 shows the percentage of fire deaths by age. Unlike relative risk, the percentages 

do not take into account the number of individuals in an age group, and the distributions 

are somewhat different. Fire deaths from ages 55 to 64 accounted for 19 percent of the 

deaths. Children younger than 15 accounted for 8 percent of all fire deaths, while older 

adults (ages 65 and older) accounted for 38 percent of all fire deaths in 2014.

People ages 50 and older had a higher fire death rate than the average population (10.7 

deaths per million population). For people ages 75 and older, the fire death rate was higher 

still — nearly three or more times the national average (Figure 24).

In 2014, adults ages 50 and older had a greater relative risk of dying in fires than the 

general population (Figure 25). Moreover, older adults ages 80 to 84 had a risk of fire death 

over three times that of the general population. Those ages 85 and older had the highest 

risk of fire death — more than four times that of the general population.

People with limited physical and cognitive abilities, especially older adults, are at a higher 

risk of death from fire than other groups. As baby boomers enter retirement age, the 

demographic profile of the U.S. is expected to change dramatically. The older adult 

population (ages 65 or older) is expected to increase from its current 14 percent of the 

total population to 24 percent by 2060,59 with an assumed corresponding increase in fire 

deaths and injuries among older adults. According to U.S. Census Bureau projections, 

by 2060, the number of individuals ages 65 or older is expected to be 98 million, more 

than double the amount in 2014. At the same time, the population ages 85 or older is 

expected to more than triple, increasing from 6 million in 2014 to 19.7 million in 2060.60

With advancing age, physical and mental capabilities of these older adults will likely 

decline, hindering their mobility and making it more difficult for them to clearly see, smell 

and hear. Lessened senses and decreased mobility increase the risk of death or injury 

from fire. 

In the past, children ages 4 and younger were also considered to be at a high risk of death 

from fire; however, data indicates that the trend is changing. In 2009, the relative risk of 

death from fire for children ages 4 and younger was equivalent to that of the general 

population. For the five-year period from 2010 to 2014, however, the relative risk of death 

from fire for children in this same age group was less than that of the general population, 

ranging from 0.9 in 2010 to 0.7 in 2012 to 2014. Although the relative risk of children ages 

4 and younger dying in a fire was 30 percent less than that of the general population in 

2014, children ages 4 and younger faced an elevated risk of death in a fire when compared 

to older children (ages 5 to 14).

59U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Table 6. Percent Distribution of the Projected Population by Sex and 

Selected Age Groups for the United States: 2015 to 2060 (NP2014-T6). Release date: December 2014, https://

www.census.gov/population/projections/data/national/2014/summarytables.html. 60U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Table 3. Projections of the Population by Sex and Selected Age 

Groups for the United States: 2015 to 2060 (NP2014-T3). Release date: December 2014, https://www.census.

gov/population/projections/data/national/2014/summarytables.html.
82 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 23. Fire Deaths by Age (2014)

0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 11.0

85 or older

80-84

75-79

70-74

65-69

60-64

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

5-9

4 or younger

8.0

8.0

8.8

9.5

9.6

8.7

5.6

4.4

4.1

3.3

3.9

2.9

1.7

1.7

2.3

4.3

6.6

6.7

Percent

Deaths (3,428 cases)

Source: NCHS.

Note:	 Data have been adjusted to account for unknown or unspecified ages.

Figure 24. Fire Death Rates by Age (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0

85 or older

80-84

75-79

70-74

65-69

60-64

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

5-9

4 or younger

44.5

24.8

19.7

17.5

5.2

6.1

4.3

2.8

2.9

3.8

39.2

29.2

Deaths per Million Population

National Fire Death Rate = 10.7

15.2

13.2

Deaths (3,428 cases)

9.1

7.3

7.0

7.5

Sources: NCHS and U.S. Census Bureau.

Note:	 Data have been adjusted to account for unknown or unspecified ages.
The National Fire Problem 83

Figure 25. Relative Risk of Fire Deaths by Age (2014)

0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0

85 or older

80-84

75-79

70-74

65-69

60-64

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

5-9

4 or younger

4.1

2.3

1.8

1.6

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.6

0.4

0.3

0.3

0.4

0.7

3.6

2.7

Relative Risk

Relative Risk = 1.0

1.4

1.2

Deaths (3,428 cases)

0.9

Sources: NCHS and U.S. Census Bureau.

Notes: 1. Relative risk compares the per capita rate for a particular group (e.g., age group) to the overall per capita rate (i.e., the 

general	population).	For	the	general	population,	the	relative	risk	is	set	at	1,	as	indicated	by	the	dashed	line	in	the	figure	

above.

	 2.	Data	have	been	adjusted	to	account	for	unknown	or	unspecified	ages.

Gender

As shown in Table 9, more men (61 percent) died in fires than women (39 percent) in 2014. 

The high proportion of male to female fire deaths has remained steady from year to year.

Table 9. Percent Distribution of Fire Deaths by Gender (2014)

Casualty Type Males 

(percent)

Females

(percent)

Deaths 61.49 38.51

Source: NCHS.

Figures 26 and 27 present the percent of fire deaths by age and gender and fire death rates 

by age and gender, respectively. The distribution of fire deaths by age is somewhat different 

for males versus females. Female fire deaths in the 70 and older age group accounted for 

approximately one-third (34 percent) of female fire deaths. Male fire deaths, by contrast, 

were highest for those adults age 50 to 69, accounting for 39 percent of male fire deaths.

Males had a higher fire death rate per million population than females for all age groups. 

Males were 1.5 times more likely to die in fires than females.
84 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 26. Fire Deaths by Age and Gender (2014)

0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0

Females (1,320 cases)

Males (2,108 cases)

85 or older

80-84

75-79

70-74

65-69

60-64

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

5-9

4 or younger

10.4

6.5

8.2

7.9

7.3

9.8

8.6

8.6

10.0

7.3

11.0

8.7

5.7

5.5

5.2

3.9

3.6

4.3

3.1

3.4

3.9

3.9

2.1

3.4

1.4

1.9

1.8

1.7

2.2

2.3

4.5

4.2

7.7

5.8

5.8

8.2

Percent

Deaths (3,428 cases)

Source: NCHS.

Note:	 Data have been adjusted to account for unknown or unspecified ages.
The National Fire Problem 85

Figure 27. Fire Death Rates by Age and Gender (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0

Females (1,320 cases)

Males (2,108 cases)

85 or older

80-84

75-79

70-74

65-69

60-64

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

5-9

4 or younger

33.9

64.8

18.1

32.6

11.9

28.5

11.8

9.9

23.8

8.7

22.1

16.5

7.1

11.2

6.6

8.1

4.8

9.2

3.8

6.7

4.8

7.4

2.5

6.0

1.8

3.6

2.4

3.3

2.9

4.7

6.2

8.7

30.3

51.8

35.1

24.5

Deaths per Million Population

Deaths (3,428 cases)

Sources: NCHS and U.S. Census Bureau.

Note:	 Data have been adjusted to account for unknown or unspecified ages.
86 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Race

Figure 28 shows the fire death rates by race and gender in 2014. White males, AfricanAmericans, and American Indians/Alaska Natives had higher fire death rates than the 

national average. Asians/Pacific Islanders had the lowest death rates. African-American 

fire death victims constituted a large and disproportionate share of total fire deaths. 

Although African-Americans constituted 13 percent of the U.S. population, they accounted 

for 20 percent of fire deaths in 2014.

Figure 28. Fire Death Rates by Race and Gender (2014)

0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0

Females 

(1,320 cases)

Males 

(2,108 cases)

Overall

Asian/

Pacific Islander

American Indian/

Alaska Natives

African-American

White

National Fire 

Death Rate = 10.7

13.3

7.9

20.0

13.0

19.5

12.2

13.8

8.4

3.9

2.7

Deaths per Million Population

Number of Fire Deaths

Race Males Females Total

White 1,631 984 2,615

AfricanAmerican 404 286 690

American 

Indian/

Alaska 

Native

39 24 63

Asian/

Pacific 

Islander

34 26 60

Overall 2,108 1,320 3,428

Sources: NCHS and U.S. Census Bureau.

Notes: 1. The overall male and female population estimates include individuals with “2+ races” per the census. The “2+ races” 

category accounts for 2.5 percent of the population. NCHS does not include this race category.

	 2. This figure uses NCHS data in the computation of the national fire death rate for data consistency within this chart.

Based on the 2014 NFPA fire death estimate, this rate is 10.3.

Fire Injuries

According to the NFPA, in 2014, there were an estimated 15,775 civilian fire injuries. In 

general, the age profile for fire injuries was very different from that for deaths. This 

difference is thought to be the result of both cognitive and mobility issues that affect 

many older adults. As a result, these adults were generally less likely to escape the effects 

of fire and thus suffered fatal injuries.

Age

Figures 29 and 30 show the percentage of fire injuries by age and fire injury rates by age 

in 2014, respectively. In 2014, children younger than 15 accounted for 11 percent of fire 

injuries; older adults (ages 65 and older) accounted for 14 percent. The majority of firerelated injuries occurred in adults ages 20 to 59. This age group accounted for 64 percent 

of the fire injuries in 2014 (Figure 29).
The National Fire Problem 87

Adults ages 85 and older experienced the highest fire injury rate at 68.5 injuries per one 

million people. Adults ages 20 to 64 also experienced higher fire injury rates than the 

national fire injury rate (i.e., 49.5 injuries per million population) yet have some of the 

lowest fire death rates. Fire injury rates were below average for children and teenagers 

ages 19 or younger and for people ages 65 to 84 (Figure 30).

In 2014, those 85 and older were at the greatest risk of fire injury, followed by adults ages 

20 to 64 (Figure 31). The risk for injury was lowest for the younger age groups and those 

ages 65 to 69 and 75 to 79. The risk for injury from fire for older adults ages 70 to 74 and 

those ages 80 to 84 was comparable to that of the general population. Although most 

of the older adult age groups had a lower or average level of fire injury risk, there were 

fewer of them in the total population. If their risk continues to be the same, we could 

expect more and more elderly fire injuries and deaths as the older adult proportion of 

the population increases. In the meantime, the focus for fire injury prevention should be 

on adults ages 20 to 64 and those 85 or older.

Figure 29. Fire Injuries by Age (2014)

0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 11.0 12.0

85 or older

80-84

75-79

70-74

65-69

60-64

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

5-9

4 or younger

2.7

3.4

4.1

6.5

7.9

7.9

7.2

8.2

8.2

8.2

4.9

2.5

2.4

5.7

1.8

2.3

Percent

7.6

8.7

Injuries

Source: NFIRS.

Note:	 Data have been adjusted to account for unknown or unspecified ages.
88 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 30. Fire Injury Rates by Age (2014)

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0

85 or older

80-84

75-79

70-74

65-69

60-64

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

5-9

4 or younger

Injuries per Million Population

National Fire Injury Rate = 49.5

Injuries

68.5

48.3

41.9

54.9

59.7

60.5

56.7

60.2

59.0

56.7

36.6

18.9

18.2

48.3

44.9

55.8

60.5

45.5

Sources: NFIRS, NFPA and U.S. Census Bureau.

Note:	 Data have been adjusted to account for unknown or unspecified ages.
The National Fire Problem 89

Figure 31. Relative Risk of Fire Injuries by Age (2014)

0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 1.25 1.50

85 or older

80-84

75-79

70-74

65-69

60-64

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

5-9

4 or younger

1.4

1.0

0.8

1.1

1.2

1.2

1.1

1.2

1.2

1.1

0.7

0.4

0.4

0.9

1.0

0.9

Relative Risk

Relative Risk = 1.00

1.1

1.2

Injuries

Sources: NFIRS, NFPA and U.S. Census Bureau.

Notes: 1. Relative risk compares the per capita rate for a particular group (e.g., age group) to the overall per capita rate (i.e., 

the general population). For the general population, the relative risk is set at 1, as indicated by the dashed lines in the 

figure above.

	 2. Data have been adjusted to account for unknown or unspecified ages.

Gender

The male-to-female ratio for fire injuries was similar to that for fire deaths, except that the 

gender gap was smaller. In 2014, more men (58 percent) were injured in fires than women 

(42 percent), as shown in Table 10.

Table 10. Percent Distribution of Fire Injuries by Gender (2014)

Casualty Type Males

(percent)

Females

(percent)

Injuries 58.46 41.54

Source: NFIRS.

Figures 32 and 33 present the percentages of fire injuries by age and gender and fire 

injury rates by age and gender, respectively. The percentage distribution of fire injuries by 

age was somewhat different for males versus females. Males ages 20 to 64 had a higher 

proportion of injuries, while older adult females had more injuries than older adult males 

(Figure 32). Males had a much higher fire injury rate per million population than females 

for all age groups (Figure 33).
90 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 

Figure 32. Fire Injuries by Age and Gender (2014)

0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0

Females

Males

85 or older

80-84

75-79

70-74

65-69

60-64

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

5-9

4 or younger

4.0

1.7

3.8

3.1

4.4

3.9

6.4

8.6

6.5

7.4

7.8

8.7

7.3

8.3

7.5

8.2

6.8

7.4

7.7

8.6

7.4

8.8

8.0

8.4

5.1

4.7

2.6

2.4

2.2

2.5

5.8

5.7

2.2

1.5

1.9

2.8

Percent

Injuries

Source: NFIRS.

Note:	 Data have been adjusted to account for unknown or unspecified ages.
The National Fire Problem 91

Figure 33. Fire Injury Rates by Age and Gender (2014)

0.0 25.0 50.0 75.0 100.0 125.0

Females

Males

85 or older

80-84

75-79

70-74

65-69

60-64

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

5-9

4 or younger

64.9

75.6

41.9

55.8

35.5

49.0

43.3

49.2

67.6

43.8

68.5

72.3

45.5

74.2

47.4

73.9

44.9

68.5

46.9

73.4

44.6

72.9

46.9

66.1

32.5

40.5

16.7

21.1

14.3

21.9

39.1

51.6

42.4

56.6

48.7

41.9

Injuries per Million Population

Injuries

Sources: NFIRS, NFPA and U.S. Census Bureau.

Note:	 Data have been adjusted to account for unknown or unspecified ages.

To comment on this specific report, visit: http://apps.usfa.fema.gov/contact/

dataReportEval?reportTitle=Fire%20in%20the%20United%20States%20(2005-2014).
92 Fire in the United States 2005-2014 
Acronyms 93

Acronyms

AFG Assistance to Firefighters Grant

ARC American Red Cross

CPI Consumer Price Index

CPSC Consumer Product Safety Commission

DEBI Data Entry Browser Interface

DET Data Entry Tool

EMS Emergency Medical Services

FAQs frequently asked questions

FDID fire department identification

NCHS National Center for Health Statistics

NFDC National Fire Data Center

NFIRS National Fire Incident Reporting System

NFIRS: PM “National Fire Incident Reporting System: Program Management”

NFIRS PM--DAPST “NFIRS Program Management--Data Analysis and Problem-Solving 

Techniques”

NFPA National Fire Protection Association

NWS National Weather Service

OMB Office of Management and Budget

PDR Public Data Release

USFA U.S. Fire Administration