The U.S. fire problem

Non-residential structure fires by year

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Year	Fires	Civilian deaths	Civilian injuries	Direct property damage (In billions)¹As reported	Direct property damage (In billions) In 2011 dollars
1977	348,000	370²	3,710	$1.9	$7.2
1978	331,500	165	3,725	$1.8	$6.3
1979	315,000	205	4,400	$2.4	$7.6
1980	307,500	229	3,625	$2.4	$6.6
1981	294,500	220	5,325	$2.7	$6.7
1982	270,000	260	4,475	$2.5	$5.8
1983	227,000	270	4,700	$2.5	$5.7
1984	225,000	285	3,750	$2.5	$5.3
1985	237,500	240	3,525	$2.7	$5.6
1986	218,500	215	3,725	$2.3	$4.7
1987	206,500	220	3,375	$2.5	$5.0
1988	192,500	215	3,675	$3.2	$6.0
1989	174,500	220	3,275	$3.5	$6.4
1990	157,000	285³	3,425	$2.5	$4.2
1991	162,500	190	3,125	$2.8⁴	$4.6⁴
1992	165,500	175	2,725	$3.1	$4.9
1993	151,500	155	3,950⁵	$2.6⁶	$4.0⁶
1994	163,000	125	3,100	$2.6	$3.9
1995	148,000	290⁷	2,600	$3.3⁸	$4.8⁸
1996	150,500	140	2,575	$3.0	$4.3
1997	145,500	120	2,600	$2.5	$3.5
1998	136,000	170	2,250	$2.3	$3.2
1999	140,000	120	2,100	$3.4	$4.6
2000	126,000	90	2,200	$2.8	$3.7
2001⁹	125,000	80	1,650	$3.2	$4.1
2002	118,000	80	1,550	$2.7	$3.4
2003	117,500	220¹⁰	1,525	$2.6¹¹	$3.2¹¹
2004	115,500	80	1,350	$2.4	$2.8
2005	115,000	50	1,500	$2.3	$2.7
2006	111,500	85	1,425	$2.6	$2.9
2007	116,500	105	1,350	$3.1¹²	$3.3¹²
2008	112,000	120	1,400	$3.8¹³	$4.0¹³
2009	103,500	105	1,690	$3.0	$3.2
2010	98,000	90	1,620	$2.6	$2.7
2011	98,500	90	1,275	$2.6	$2.6

1 Individual incidents with large loss can affect the total for a given year. Note the following:
The 1988 figure includes a Norco, Louisiana petroleum refinery with a loss of $330 million. The 1989 figure includes a Pasedena, Texas polyolefin plant with a loss of $750 million.

2 Includes 165 deaths at the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire in Southgate, Kentucky.

3 Includes 87 deaths at the Happy Land social club fire in New York City (N.Y.C.).

4 Does not include $1.5 billion in damage caused by Oakland Fire Storm.

5 Includes 1,024 injuries that occurred at the World Trade Centerexplosion and fire in N.Y.C.

6 Does not include Southern California Wildfire with a loss of $809 million.

7 Includes 168 deaths that occurred at the federal office building fire in Oklahoma City, OK.

8 Includes an Oklahoma City, OK office building with a loss of $135 million, a Georgia manufacturing plant fire with a loss of $200 million and a Massachusetts industrial complex fire with a loss of $500 million.

9 Does not include the events of 9/11/01, where there were 2,451 civilian deaths, 800 civilian injuries and $33.44 billion in property loss.

10 This includes 100 fire deaths in the Station Nightclub FIre in Phode Island and 31 deaths in two nursing home fires in Connecticut and Tennessee.

11 This does not include the Southern California Wildfires with an estimated property damage of $2 billion.

12 This does not include the California Fire Storm 2007 with an estimated property damage of $1.8 billion.

13 Does not include the California wildfires 2008.

The term non-residential includes public assembly, educational, institutional, store and office, industry, utility, storage and special structure properties.

Direct property damage figures do not include indirect losses, like business interruption. Inflation adjustment to 2008 dollars is done using the consumer price index.

Source: Fire Loss in the United States 2011, Michael J. Karter, Jr., September 2012 and previous reports in the series.

Updated: 9/12

			Overview of the U.S. fire problem

			Number of fires by type of fire

			Home fires

			Homes Fires with Ten or More Fatalities

			One- and two-family home fires (includes manufactured homes)

			Structure fires

			Residential structure fires

			Non-residential structure fires

			Apartment structure fires

			Non-home structure fires

			U.S. highway vehicle fires