Columns

Candle Fire Numbers Begin To Fall
Candle fires had been climbing steadily from 1990 to 2001

NFPA Journal®, January/February 2007

Compiled by John Nicholson

During 2004, candles in U.S. homes caused an estimated 17,200 reported structure fires, 200 civilian deaths, 1,540 civilian injuries, and $200 million in estimated direct property damage. (Homes include one and two-family dwellings, apartments and manufactured housing.)

The number of reported home candle fires has begun to fall after climbing steadily from 1990 to 2001. From 1980, the first year of available data, to 1990, these fires had been falling. The year 2002 was the first since 1995 that has not been a new high. Even so, the 17,200 fires reported in 2004 is two and-a-half times the 6,800 reported in 1990. From 2003 to 2004, these fires fell 6 percent.

Partly because total home fires have declined so much since 1980 and partly because candle fires have increased in recent years, the share of home structure fires (including confined fires) started by candles jumped from 1 percent in the early 1980s to 5-6 percent in 1999-2003. The share fell to 4 percent in 2004.

In this Section:
			Buzzwords Waiting for the fire
			Centennial One hundred years in print
			Firewatch Fire heavily damages older hotel
			First Word NFPA President Jim M. Shannon provides a review of 2006
			Heads Up Debating single-point design
			In A Flash Candle fires had been climbing steadily from 1990 to 2001
			In Compliance Egress capacity factors
			Outreach Frightful outside, delightful inside
			Research Understanding storage hazards
			Section Forum Be in the spotlight, share your expertise, and contribute to NFPA Journal's exclusive "Section Forum"
			Structural Ops Rate of flow is an essential part of a pre-incident plan.