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 Smoking Fire Trends (2011‑2020)

National estimates

The 2020 national estimates for residential building smoking fires and losses show that there were:

7,900 fires.
330 deaths.
725 injuries.
$368,900,000 in dollar loss.

Overall trends

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

A 12% decrease in fires.
An 8% increase in deaths.
In 2018, 7 reported multifatality fire incidents (including 1 resulting in 6 deaths) may have contributed to the increase in the estimate of fire deaths.
A 26% decrease in injuries.
A 0.3% increase in 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 smoking fires

View data in a table
Download chart

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Fires	7800	9600	8000	7600	8000	7700	7800	7700	7000	7900

Residential building smoking fire deaths

View data in a table
Download chart

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Deaths	305	330	320	325	320	375	300	390	320	330

Residential building smoking fire injuries

View data in a table
Download chart

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Injuries	1050	800	850	775	675	750	700	700	750	725

Residential building smoking fire dollar loss

View data in a table
Download chart

Year	Dollar loss
2011	341100000
2012	392400000
2013	317200000
2014	251400000
2015	279300000
2016	301400000
2017	319900000
2018	328700000
2019	318300000
2020	368900000

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.