Report: NFPA's "Fire Loss in the United States During 2018"
Author: Ben Evarts
Issued: September 2019
Key findings
- Public fire departments responded to 1,318,500 fires in 2018, virtually the same as the previous year.
- Every 24 seconds, a fire department in the United States responds to a fire somewhere in the nation. A fire occurs in a structure at the rate of one every 63 seconds, and a home fire occurs every 87 seconds.
- Seventy-four percent of all fire deaths occurred in the home.
- Home fires were responsible for 11,200 civilian injuries, or 74% of all civilian injuries, in 2018.
- An estimated $25.6 billion in property damage occurred as a result of fire in 2018, a large increase, as this number includes a $12 billion loss in wildfires in Northern California.
- An estimated 25,500 structure fires were intentionally set in 2018, an increase of 13% over the year before.
Fires in the U.S. during 2018 by type
Older versions of the report
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