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Residential Building Fire Injury Causes (2015-2024)

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National estimates

The 2024 national estimates for the leading causes of residential building fire injuries show that there were:

  • 2,175 cooking fire injuries.
  • 1,500 other unintentional, careless fire injuries.
  • 800 electrical malfunction fire injuries.
  • 725 open-flame fire injuries.

Overall trends

Overall trends in the leading fire injury causes for the 10-year period of 2015 to 2024 show the following:

  • 39% decrease in residential cooking fire injuries.
    • Cooking was the leading cause of residential building fire injuries for the 10-year period.
  • 18% increase in residential other unintentionally or carelessly set fire injuries.
    • In 2020, 2021 and 2023, there were numerous reported multiple-injury fire incidents that may have contributed to the increase in the estimate of these fire injuries. The 2020 multiple-injury fire incidents included a high-rise apartment building fire in New York with 29 injuries.
  • 14% decrease in residential open-flame fire injuries.
  • 1% increase in residential electrical malfunction fire injuries.
* Estimated trends in time-series data may be skewed by high-impact outlier events that inflate cumulative variance, and the magnitude of these trends may appear artificially amplified or minimized due to the scaling of the graphic.

Leading causes of residential building fire injuries (2015-2024)

Leading causes of residential building fire injuries (2015-2024)
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Cooking 3775 3475 3300 3100 3550 3175 3000 2350 2500 2175
Other unintentional, careless 1350 1325 1300 1450 1650 1800 1700 1375 1600 1500
Open flame 975 925 900 975 1000 975 975 850 925 725
Electrical malfunction 850 800 750 825 1050 975 900 850 800 800