Economic impacts

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The Total Cost of Fire in the United States
John R. Hall, Jr., March 2009
Cost: $25.00. 30 pages. Order # USS13.
Includes human and economic losses, costs of the fire service, built-in fire protection, and costs associated with the insurance industry.

Abstract: The total cost of fire in the United States, as it is defined, is a combination of the losses caused by fire and the money spent to prevent worse losses, by preventing them, containing them, detecting them quickly, and suppressing them effectively. For 2006, that total cost is estimated at $317 billion, or roughly 2.8% of U.S. gross domestic product. Economic loss (property damage) – reported or unreported, direct or indirect – represents only $13.6 billion of this total. The net costs of insurance coverage ($17.8 billion), the cost of career fire departments ($34.2 billion), building costs for fire protection ($48.5 billion), other economic costs ($41.1 billion), the monetary value of donated time from volunteer firefighters ($119 billion), and the estimated monetary equivalent for the deaths and injuries due to fire ($43.1 billion), all are larger components than property loss.
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All visitors: Download a printable fact sheet on the total cost of fires in the U.S. (PDF 39 KB)