Large-loss fires in the United States

Report & tables

Large-Loss Fires in the United States

This report contains overall statistics from NFPA's annual study of large-loss fires, defined as fires or explosions that result in property damage of at least $10 million. The data for this study is obtained by the NFPA from responding fire departments. The report includes patterns of loss by type of property, cause of fire, and presence and effectiveness of automatic detection and suppression systems.

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Report highlights

• The costliest fire incident of 2020 was in a California wildfire referred to as the “2020 Fire Siege.” No exact total dollar loss has been released, but a partial loss of at least $4.2 billion has been confirmed. This loss estimate could increase by several billion dollars over time.
• In 2020, there were 28 large-loss fires and explosions, resulting in an estimated $8.1 billion in direct property damage and losses. Ten of these fires resulted in more than $20 million in property damage each.
• Of the 28 large-loss fires in 2020, 23 involved structures and resulted in a total property loss of $822.6 million.There were five non-structural fires which includes three wildland/urban interface fires; one vehicle fire, and one fire involving a storage area outside of a structure. The non-structural fires had a combined loss of $7.2 billion.
• In 2020, there were three fires that each resulted in a loss of more than $100 million —a wildland fire, a Navy ship fire, and a large warehouse fire—which caused a combined loss of $7.5 billion.

Related information

• Large-Loss Fires in the United States - 2017 (PDF)
• Largest loss wildland fires
• Largest fire losses in the United States 

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