Report: NFPA's "Fire Loss in the United States During 2012"
Author: Michael J. Karter, Jr.
Issued: September 2013
This report contains overall statistics from the NFPA survey of fire departments on fires, civilian deaths and injuries, and property damage in 2012. Includes patterns by major property class. Includes patterns by major property class, region and community size as well as information on types of fire department calls and false alarms.
Introduction
U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 1,375,000 fires. These fires resulted in 2,855 civilian fire fatalities, 16,500 civilian fire injuries and an estimated $12,427,000,000 in direct property loss. There was a civilian fire death every 3 hours and 4 minutes and a civilian fire injury every 32 minutes in 2012. Home fires caused 2,380, or 83%, of the civilian fire deaths. Fires accounted for four percent of the 31,854,000 total calls. Seven percent of the calls were false alarms; sixty-eight percent of the calls were for aid such as EMS.
