Large-loss fires in the United States

Incident descriptions and summary statistics on fires causing $10 million or more in damage in 2011.

Introduction

NFPA reports annually on large-loss fires and explosions that occurred in the United States the year before. Such fires and explosions are defined as any event that results in property damage of at least $10 million. Last year, according to NFPA’s report, "Fire Loss in the United States During 2011," U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 1,389,500 structure and non-structure fires, which caused an estimated loss of $11.7 billion. Many of these fires were small or resulted in little or no reported property damage. However, 22 of them resulted in losses of $10 million or more each, for a total of roughly $799 million in direct property losses. Although these fires accounted for only 0.002 percent of the estimated number of fires in 2011, they accounted for 6.9 percent of the total estimated dollar loss.

In 2011, 11 fires resulted in more than $20 million each in property damage. These costliest 11 fires, which include eight structure fires, two wildfires, and one outside fire with loss, resulted in a combined property loss of $672.5 million, which represents 82.6 percent of the total loss in large-loss fires and 5.8 percent of the total fire losses in the United States for 2011. The Bastrop County Complex fire alone resulted in losses of $400 million.

The Bastrop County Complex wildfire broke out at about 2:20 p.m. on September 4 when power lines shorted out during high winds and sparks ignited dried grass and vegetation. The temperature that day was 98oF (37oC), winds were in excess of 45 miles (72 kilometers) per hour, and the relative humidity was 12 percent. By the time it was extinguished, it had burned 34,068 acres (12,787 hectares), destroyed 1,645 homes, and killed two people. This is the sixth time in the last 10 years that the largest-dollar-loss fire in the United States has been a wildfire.