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Trends and patterns of U.S. fire losses

Report: NFPA's "Trends and Patterns of U.S. Fire Losses"
Author: Marty Ahrens
Issued: January 2017


*Errata (PDF) issued June 26, 2017.

Report highlights

  • Fire departments do far more than fight fires.  In 2015, only 4% of all fire department responses were to fires.
  • Home fires still cause the majority of all civilian fire deaths, civilian injuries and property loss due to fire.
  • Vehicle fires and outside or unclassified fires fell more than structure fires over the past 15 years.
  • Despite the decline in reported fires, fire department responses have nearly tripled from 11,888,000 total incidents in 1985 to 33,602,500 in 2015.
  • These findings highlight the diverse responsibilities of the fire service and the continued threat of fire to the U.S. population.

 

Fire department responses by incident type

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