Fire Safety Information
In 2016, there were 1,342,000 fires reported in the United States. These fires caused 3,390 civilian deaths, 14,650 civilian injuries, and $10.6 billion in property damage.
- 475,500 were structure fires, causing 2,950 civilian deaths, 12,775 civilian injuries, and $7.9 billion in property damage.
- 173,000 were vehicle fires, causing 280 civilian fire deaths, 1,075 civilian fire injuries, and $933 million in property damage.
- 662,500 were outside and other fires, causing 85 civilian fire deaths, 650 civilian fire injuries, and $1.4 billion in property damage.
The 2016 U.S. fire loss clock a fire department responded to a fire every 24 seconds. One structure fire was reported every 66 seconds.
- One home structure fire was reported every 90 seconds.
- One civilian fire injury was reported every 34 minutes.
- One civilian fire death occurred every 2 hours and 35 minutes.
- One outside and other fire was reported every 48 seconds.
- One highway vehicle fire was reported every 3 minutes 2 seconds.
Fire Loss Facts 2016 - UPDATED December 4, 2017
Large-Loss Fires In The United States
Report: NFPA's "The Total Cost of Fire in the United States" (PDF, 725 KB)
Author: John R. Hall, Jr.
Issued: March 2014
Includes human and economic losses, costs of the fire service, built-in fire protection, and costs associated with the insurance industry.
In 2016, 25 fires in the United States resulted in losses of at least $10 million each, for a cumulative total of $1.4 billion in direct property losses. These fires accounted for 14 civilian deaths, 183 civilian injuries and eight firefighter injuries.
The largest fire in terms of direct property loss was the Chimney Tops 2 Fire, in Tennessee, with a loss of $911 million. The second largest was the Clayton Fire, a California wildfire that resulted in $175 million in damage.
Of the 25 large-loss fires in 2016, 22 involved structures and resulted in a total property loss of $348.6 million. The other fires included the two Wildland Urban Interface fires and one vehicle fire (a towboat) that resulted in combined losses of $1.1 billion.
Statistics about the fire service
- 1,160,450firefighters protected the United States in 2015. 345,600 (30%) werecareerfirefighters and 814,850 (70%) werevolunteerfirefighters.
- Mostcareerfirefighters (71%) are in communities that protect 25,000 or more people.
- Most volunteer firefighters (95%) are in departments that protect fewer than 25,000 and more than half are located in small, rural departments that protect fewer than 2,500 people.
- There were 69 firefighter deaths in 2016. The largest share of deaths occurred while firefighters were responding to and returning from alarms (17 deaths), and the next largest share occurred while firefighters were operating at fires (15 deaths), each accounting for one-fifth to one-quarter of the total deaths.
- There were 62,085 firefighter injuries in 2016.
- 24,325 of all firefighter injuries in 2016 occurred during fireground operations. Other firefighter injuries by type of duty include: responding to, or returning from an incident (5,200); training (8,480); non-fire emergency (12,780); and other on-duty activities (11,300).