Trends | Causes | Where fires occur | Who fire impacts | Firefighters and fire departments
The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) collects data from a variety of sources to provide information and analyses on the status and scope of the fire problem in the United States. Armed with this data, the fire service can use it to:
| Trend | |||
| Fires | 1,318,500 in 2018 | -2.5% from 2009 | |
| Deaths | 3,655 in 2018 | +20.5% from 2009 | |
| Injuries | 15,200 in 2018 | -17.0% from 2009 | |
| $ Loss | $25.6 billion in 2018 | +90.6% * from 2009 | |
| No Large $ | $13.2 billion in 2018 | -3.8% ** from 2009 |
* Adjusted to 2018 dollars. Direct dollar loss includes: 2011 – the Bastrop County Texas Complex Wildfire ($400,000,000), 2012 – the Waldo Canyon Fire and the High Park Fire in Colorado ($567,400,000 total), 2013 – the Black Forest Fire ($420,500,000) in Colorado, 2015 – the Valley and Butte Wildfires in California ($1,950,000,000 total), 2016 – the Gatlinburg, Tennessee Wildfires ($911,000,000), 2017 – Northern California wildfires ($10,000,000,000), and 2018 – California wildfires ($12,400,000,000).
** Adjusted to 2018 dollars. Excludes the large loss fires listed above.
See: National Fire Protection Association for more statistics on U.S. fire loss.
Read our reports on the causes of residential, nonresidential, vehicle and outside fires, and fires in other places.
Fire estimate summaries of residential buildings, fire trends and causes (2009-2018) PDF 2.5 MB
Thirteen summaries describing trends in U.S. residential fires. Included are summaries for deaths, injuries, dollar loss, and leading residential fire causes.
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| Cooking | 50.7% |
| Heating | 9.4% |
| Unintentional, careless | 7.5% |
| Electrical malfunction | 6.8% |
| Open flame | 4.3% |
| Intentional | 4.2% |
| Other heat | 3.4% |
| Appliances | 3.0% |
| Equipment malfunction | 2.4% |
| Smoking | 2.0% |
| Exposure | 1.8% |
| Natural | 1.6% |
| Cause under investigation | 1.3% |
| Other equipment | 1.3% |
| Playing with heat source | 0.4% |
Totals may not equal 100% due to rounding.
Fire estimate summaries of nonresidential buildings, fire trends and causes (2009-2018) PDF 1.3 MB
Nine summaries describing trends in U.S. nonresidential fires. Included are summaries for number of fires, dollar loss and leading nonresidential fire causes.
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| Cooking | 30.6% |
| Unintentional, careless | 11.5% |
| Intentional | 9.8% |
| Electrical malfunction | 7.8% |
| Heating | 6.9% |
| Open flame | 5.7% |
| Other heat | 5.3% |
| Other equipment | 4.7% |
| Equipment malfunction | 3.8% |
| Appliances | 3.5% |
| Exposure | 3.4% |
| Natural | 3.2% |
| Smoking | 2.1% |
| Cause under investigation | 1.5% |
| Playing with heat source | 0.3% |
Totals may not equal 100% due to rounding.
Read our reports on where fires occur.
Residential is the leading property type for fire deaths (75.0%), fire injuries (77.1%) and fire dollar loss (43.3%).
Read our reports on who fire impacts the most.
| 2017 | California, Texas and New York | led the nation in number of fire deaths. |
|---|---|---|
| West Virginia, Alaska and Arkansas | had the most deaths per million population in the U.S. |
State fire deaths State fire profiles
| Deaths | Injuries | |
|---|---|---|
| 60.9% | 59.5% | |
| 39.1% | 40.5% |
African American males (19.7) and American Indian males (17.4) have the highest fire death rates per million population.
People ages 85 or older have the highest fire death rate (43.0).
People ages 40-44 have the highest fire injury rate (58.4).
More information on fire death rates for older adults and children.
Read our reports on fire departments and firefighters.
There were an estimated 29,705 fire departments (all career: 10%; mostly career: 8%; mostly volunteer: 18%; all volunteer: 64%).
See: National Fire Protection Association for more statistics on fire departments.
There were an estimated 1,115,000 firefighters (career: 370,000; volunteer: 745,000).
See: National Fire Protection Association for more statistics on firefighters.
| 82 | Firefighters died while on duty. |
| 33 | Firefighters died from heart attacks. |
| 42 | Firefighters died from activities related to an emergency incident. |
| 30 | Firefighters died from activities at a fire scene. |
| 9 | Firefighters died while participating in training activities. |
| 10 | Firefighters died while responding to or returning from emergency incidents. |
22,975 firefighters were injured on the fireground in 2018.
Visit: National Fire Protection Association for more statistics on firefighter injuries.
These documents describe the data sources and methodology we use to calculate our fire loss estimates.
