United States Fire Statistics:
The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) collects data from a variety of sources to provide information and analyses on the status and scope of the fire problem in the United States. Armed with this data, the fire service can use it to:
- Create a baseline for evaluating programs.
- Increase awareness.
- Motivate corrective actions.
- Set priorities.
- Target public education programs.
Trends in fires, deaths, injuries and dollar loss
| Trend | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fires | 1,319,500 in 2017 |
-6.2% from 2008 |
|
| Deaths | 3,400 in 2017 |
+9.6% from 2008 |
|
| Injuries | 14,670 in 2017 |
-15.8% from 2008 |
|
| $ Loss | $23.0 billion in 2017 |
+12.0% * from 2008 |
* Adjusted to 2017 dollars; includes $10 billion in losses from Northern California wildfires.
What are the causes of fires?
Residential fires
Thirteen summaries describing trends in U.S. residential fires. Included are summaries for deaths, injuries, dollar loss, and leading residential fire causes.
Residential building fire causes in 2017 371,500 fires (estimated)
Total does not equal 100% due to rounding.
Causes of fatal residential building fires in 2017
1,900 fatal fires (estimated)
Causes of residential building fires resulting in injuries in 2017
7,000 fires resulting in injuries (estimated)
Nonresidential fires
Nine summaries describing trends in U.S. nonresidential fires. Included are summaries for the number of fires, dollar loss, and leading nonresidential fire causes.
Nonresidential building fire causes in 2017 111,000 fires (estimated)
Total does not equal 100% due to rounding.
Causes of vehicle and outside fires
Causes of vehicle fires
204,000 vehicle fires in 2016
Causes of outside fires
558,500 outside fires in 2016
Where do fires occur?
Property types
“Residential” is the leading property type for fire deaths (73.2%), fire injuries (76.5%) and fire dollar loss (54.7%).
Fires by general property type (2016)29.1% Residential
8.3% Nonresidential
14.3% Vehicle
42.8% Outside
5.6% Other
Who does fire impact the most?
| 2017 | California, Texas and New York | led the nation in number of fire deaths. |
|---|---|---|
| West Virginia, Alaska and Arkansas | had the most deaths per million population in the U.S. |
| Deaths | Injuries | |
|---|---|---|
| 60.9% | 59.5% | |
| 39.1% | 40.5% |
More men die and are injured
in fires than women.
National fire death rate: 11.2
National fire injury rate: 45.1
per million populationGender and race
African American males (19.7) and American Indian males (17.4) have the highest fire death rates per million population.
Age
People ages 85 or older have the highest fire death rate (43.0).
People ages 40-44 have the highest fire injury rate (58.4).
Firefighters and fire departments
Fire departments
There were an estimated 29,727 fire departments in 2015 (all career: 9 percent; mostly career: 6 percent; mostly volunteer: 18 percent; all volunteer: 67 percent).
Firefighters
There were an estimated 1,160,450 firefighters in 2015 (career: 345,600; volunteer: 814,850).
On-duty firefighter deaths in 2017
48 Volunteer
33 Career
6 Wildland agency
| 87 | Firefighters died while on duty. |
| 50 | Firefighters died from heart attacks. |
| 40 | Firefighters died from activities related to an emergency incident. |
| 17 | Firefighters died from activities at a fire scene. |
| 12 | Firefighters died while participating in training activities. |
| 11 | Firefighters died while responding to or returning from emergency incidents. |
Firefighter injuries
24,495 firefighters were injured on the fire ground in 2017.
Visit: National Fire Protection Association for more statistics on firefighter injuries.
