An official website of the United States government Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Residential Building Other Unintentional, Careless Fire Trends (2011‑2020)

National estimates

The 2020 national estimates for residential building other unintentional, careless fires and losses show that there were:

27,800 fires.
500 deaths.
1,800 injuries.
$1,675,800,000 in dollar loss.

Overall trends

Overall trends for residential building other unintentional, careless fires and losses for the 10-year period of 2011 to 2020 show the following:

A 30% increase in fires.
A 57% increase in deaths.
In 2018, 2019 and 2020, 16, 18 and 9 reported multifatality fire incidents (resulting in 2, 3, 4 or 5 deaths each), respectively, may have contributed to the increase in the estimate of fire deaths.
A 40% increase in injuries.
A 45% increase in dollar loss.^*
In 2018, 2019 and 2020, there were 33, 30 and 24 incidents, respectively, with a reported dollar loss of $1,000,000 or more, which may have contributed to the continued increase in fire dollar loss.

^*This overall constant dollar-loss trend takes inflation into account by adjusting each year's dollar loss to its equivalent 2020 value.

Fires, deaths, injuries and dollar loss

Residential building other unintentional, careless fires

View data in a table
Download chart

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Fires	24900	21100	21000	22000	24500	24200	26400	28600	27200	27800

Residential building other unintentional, careless fire deaths

View data in a table
Download chart

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Deaths	360	295	465	450	440	480	435	545	585	500

Residential building other unintentional, careless fire injuries

View data in a table
Download chart

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Injuries	1625	1050	1075	1075	1350	1325	1300	1450	1650	1800

Residential building other unintentional, careless fire dollar loss

View data in a table
Download chart

Year	Dollar loss
2011	1240700000
2012	1261700000
2013	1156500000
2014	1200500000
2015	1357900000
2016	1264900000
2017	1458900000
2018	1629000000
2019	1590300000
2020	1675800000

Fire estimate summaries present basic data on the size and status of the fire problem in the U.S. as depicted through data reported to the U.S. Fire Administration's (USFA's) National Fire Incident Reporting System from incidents reported by local response agencies. Each Fire Estimate Summary addresses the size of the specific fire or fire-related issue and highlights important trends in the data.

Fire estimate summaries are based on the USFA's “National Estimates Methodology for Building Fires and Losses.”. The USFA is committed to providing the best and most current information on the U.S. fire problem and continually examines data received from participating fire departments and the analytical methods used to fulfill this goal. Because of this commitment, data collection strategies and methodological changes are possible and do occur. Previous estimates on specific issues (or similar issues) may have used different methodologies or data definitions and, therefore, may not be directly comparable to current estimates.